Charles Philip Krauth was born May 7, 1797 in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania. In 1819 the Ministerium of Pennsylvania licensed Krauth to preach. After serving Lutheran congregations at Martinsburg and Shepherdstown, Virginia, he was called in 1827 to Philadelphia to take charge of the recently organized English congregation.
He became a trustee of the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Gettysburg in 1826 and of Pennsylvania (now Gettysburg) College in 1832. At the college, he served as professor of Intellectual and Moral Science, then in 1833 he was elected professor of Biblical and Oriental Literature at the seminary.
The following year, in 1834, Krauth was unanimously elected president of Pennsylvania college, a position he held until 1850 when he resigned to devote his time exclusively to duties in the theological seminary. From 1850–1861 Krauth also edited the Evangelical Review. Krauth died at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania on May 30, 1867.