Ach kommet her, ihr Menschenkinder

Author: Christopher Dock

Dock, Christopher. (ca.1698--1771). Mennonite. Came from Germany sometime between 1710 and 1714. Four years later he opened a school for the Mennonite children on the Skippack in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania. On September 28, 1735, he purchased 100 acres in Salford Township nearby and opened a second school, thereafter three days a week in each school. For several summers he also taught a Mennonite school in Germantown. A devout, sensitive lover of children, it was his custom to remain in the schoolroom each day after the children had left and pray for each individually. In this devotion, he was found dead on his kneed in the school one evening in 1771. His classrooms were adorned with illuminated mottoes from his pen. His method of o… Go to person page >