John Beck's Boys Academy
Encyclopedia
John Beck's Boys Academy was a highly esteemed nineteenth boarding school in the Moravian village of Lititz
, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania
. It drew students from throughout the eastern U.S. and even from Canada, the Caribbean and Europe. In total, 2,326 pupils passed through Beck's curriculum, including Major General John F. Reynolds
, a Union army leader killed at Gettysburg; a number of successful businessmen, educators and Congressmen; railroad president Franklin B. Gowen
; and the son of the abolitionist and Reconstruction politician, Thaddeus Stevens
.
. With no local school available, his parents sent John to Nazareth Hall
, in Nazareth, Pennsylvania
, a precursor of Moravian College
. His accomplishments there were sufficiently undistinguished that they determined, when he was fifteen, to apprentice him to learn a trade under the care of a "religious and strictly moral man. . . whose views in that regard accorded with their own." Looking about they located a shoemaker in Lititz "whom they believed worthy of their confidence."
Beck's teaching career started in 1813, a short time after completing his apprenticeship, when he was engaged to tutor five local apprentice boys. From this beginning, Beck next became master of the village school in Lititz, with twenty-two boys. In 1818, when Beck was offered a $300 salary to run the parochial school in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania
, the people of Lititz dissuaded him by offering to turn their school over to him on his own terms. To Beck's own surprise, the school grew in the next several years under his devoted care from a single classroom in a converted blacksmith shop to a newly built, multi-room building; and simultaneously from simply the village school into a boarding school, John Beck's Boys Academy.
The boys lived with the families of the village, which was owned and governed by the local Moravian congregation. Studies went well beyond the usual "3 R's" to include more advanced subjects such as astronomy, chemistry, algebra, trigonometry and German. The school term was long, with only four weeks' vacation a year. Classes were held in morning and afternoon sessions; during the winter there were also evening lectures on "the various branches of Natural philosophy" and "the Manners and Customs and forms of Government of Nations."
Lititz, Pennsylvania
Lititz is a borough in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, 6 miles north of the city of Lancaster.-History:Lititz was founded by members of the Moravian Church in 1756, and was named after a castle in Bohemia near the village of Kunvald where the ancient Bohemian Brethren's Church had...
, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania
Lancaster County, Pennsylvania
Lancaster County, known as the Garden Spot of America or Pennsylvania Dutch Country, is a county located in the southeastern part of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, in the United States. As of 2010 the population was 519,445. Lancaster County forms the Lancaster Metropolitan Statistical Area, the...
. It drew students from throughout the eastern U.S. and even from Canada, the Caribbean and Europe. In total, 2,326 pupils passed through Beck's curriculum, including Major General John F. Reynolds
John F. Reynolds
John Fulton Reynolds was a career United States Army officer and a general in the American Civil War. One of the Union Army's most respected senior commanders, he played a key role in committing the Army of the Potomac to the Battle of Gettysburg and was killed at the start of the battle.-Early...
, a Union army leader killed at Gettysburg; a number of successful businessmen, educators and Congressmen; railroad president Franklin B. Gowen
Franklin B. Gowen
Franklin Benjamin Gowen served as president of the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad in the 1870s and 1880s....
; and the son of the abolitionist and Reconstruction politician, Thaddeus Stevens
Thaddeus Stevens
Thaddeus Stevens , of Pennsylvania, was a Republican leader and one of the most powerful members of the United States House of Representatives...
.
History
The school's founder, John Beck, was born in Frederick County, Maryland on June 16, 1791. While a child, his family moved to Lancaster County and then to Lebanon CountyLebanon County, Pennsylvania
As of the census of 2000, there were 120,327 people and 32,771 families residing in the county. The population density was 332 people per square mile . There were 49,320 housing units at an average density of 136 per square mile...
. With no local school available, his parents sent John to Nazareth Hall
Nazareth Hall
Nazareth Hall was a school in Nazareth, PA. It was built in 1754 in hopes that Count Nikolaus Ludwig Zinzendorf would return from Europe and settle permanently in the community; he never came back to America...
, in Nazareth, Pennsylvania
Nazareth, Pennsylvania
Nazareth is a borough in Northampton County, Pennsylvania, in the United States. The population was 6,023 at the 2000 census.Nazareth is located seven miles northwest of Easton, four miles north of Bethlehem and twelve miles northeast of Allentown...
, a precursor of Moravian College
Moravian College
Moravian College a private liberal arts college, and the associated Moravian Theological Seminary are located in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, United States, in the Lehigh Valley region.-History:...
. His accomplishments there were sufficiently undistinguished that they determined, when he was fifteen, to apprentice him to learn a trade under the care of a "religious and strictly moral man. . . whose views in that regard accorded with their own." Looking about they located a shoemaker in Lititz "whom they believed worthy of their confidence."
Beck's teaching career started in 1813, a short time after completing his apprenticeship, when he was engaged to tutor five local apprentice boys. From this beginning, Beck next became master of the village school in Lititz, with twenty-two boys. In 1818, when Beck was offered a $300 salary to run the parochial school in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania
Bethlehem, Pennsylvania
Bethlehem is a city in Lehigh and Northampton Counties in the Lehigh Valley region of eastern Pennsylvania, in the United States. As of the 2010 census, the city had a total population of 74,982, making it the seventh largest city in Pennsylvania, after Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Allentown, Erie,...
, the people of Lititz dissuaded him by offering to turn their school over to him on his own terms. To Beck's own surprise, the school grew in the next several years under his devoted care from a single classroom in a converted blacksmith shop to a newly built, multi-room building; and simultaneously from simply the village school into a boarding school, John Beck's Boys Academy.
The boys lived with the families of the village, which was owned and governed by the local Moravian congregation. Studies went well beyond the usual "3 R's" to include more advanced subjects such as astronomy, chemistry, algebra, trigonometry and German. The school term was long, with only four weeks' vacation a year. Classes were held in morning and afternoon sessions; during the winter there were also evening lectures on "the various branches of Natural philosophy" and "the Manners and Customs and forms of Government of Nations."