In 1845, Verhaegen became the provincial superior of the Jesuits' Maryland Province, where he remained until 1848 when he became the first president of St. Joseph's College in Kentucky.

Peter Joseph Verhaegen was born on June 21, 1800, in Haacht, in the province of South Brabant, in the United Kingdom of the Netherlands (modern-day Belgium).

While there, he and six other seminarians met Charles Nerinckx, who was raising funds for his missions in the Diocese of Bardstown in the United States.

They arrived in Philadelphia on September 23,[1] and then traveled on to Georgetown in Washington, D.C., and ultimately to White Marsh, Maryland.

[4] Under the direction of Charles Felix Van Quickenborne, Verhaegen was sent along with a group of other novices to establish a mission in Missouri.

They then traveled up the Missouri River and arrived at the site of the new novitiate, located 17 miles (27 km) from St. Louis, several days later.

[3] Since Verhaegen had nearly completed his studies at the Mechelen seminary, he was responsible for instructing the younger novices in theology and philosophy.

[9] In 1836, Verhaegen became the superior of the Jesuits' Missouri mission, thereby resigning his post as president of Saint Louis University,[5] where he was succeeded by John A.

[5] That year, he sent Pierre-Jean De Smet as the first Jesuit missionary to the Native Americans in the Rocky Mountains and Oregon Country.

In 1848, he became the first president of St. Joseph's College in Bardstown, Kentucky, which was newly under the control of the Missouri Vice Province.

[12] When the scholasticate was removed the following year from the university to College Hill, Verhaegen retired to the residence in St. Charles, where he died on July 21, 1868.