Frederick Kuhl was born in Philadelphia in 1729. In 1752, at Philadelphia’s Christ Church, Frederick Kuhl married Susanna Hillegas (1733-1769), sister of Michael Hillegas, first treasurer of the United States. They had a son, Henry (1764-1856). During the American Revolution, Frederick Kuhl was listed in 1775 as a member of the Board of Managers at Carpenters’ Hall and of the Committee of Inspection. In 1776 he was a member of Philadelphia’s Committee of Safety and of the Constitutional Convention.
Kuhl was elected a trustee of the University of the State of Pennsylvania in 1785, and continued as a trustee of the University of Pennsylvania after the 1791 union of the University of the State of Pennsylvania and the College of Philadelphia. Kuhl resigned as trustee in 1800.
It is unclear how two Penn students during the 1780s and 1790s were related to this Frederick Kuhl: Marcus Hillegas Kuhl attended the Academy in 1782 and the University of the State of Pennsylvania from 1787 to 1789, earning his A.B. in 1789; and a Frederick Kuhl entered the University in 1789 and earned his A.B. in 1792.