Page:The Life and Works of Christopher Dock.djvu/18

12 —"the pious Schoolmaster on the Skippack," Christopher Dock.

Dock's birthplace in Germany is unknown. Some time between 1710 and 1714, he came to Pennsylvania, attracted no doubt by the religious freedom enjoyed here by his brethren of the Mennonite faith. To this religious body he was early attached and in its communion he lived and died. He probably came here to farm. But his pious spirit was early concerned for the better education of the children of his German neighbors. He was encouraged to teach by Christopher Saur and other leaders among the Germans of Colonial Pennsylvania.

Of his education and career in Germany no reliable data can now be given. There is a tradition that he had been drafted into the Army and that he was discharged because of his religious convictions, which led him to refuse to bear arms.

Not later than 1718, Governor Pennypacker thinks in 1714, Dock opened a school among the Mennonites on the Skippack in what is now Montgomery County. He believed he was divinely called to teach; and, although the compensation was exceedingly meagre, he continued this school for ten years. At the expiration of this period he engaged in farming. On September 28, 1735, he purchased of the Penns for £15 10s. a tract of 100 acres in Salford Township, now Montgomery County. Upon this tract he lived for many years.

On February 22, 1702, Matthias Van Bebber, a