John Beck was born in 1791 in the Moravian community of Salem, North Carolina, and came to Lititz as a young man to teach. In 1815 he opened a school for boys in the village.
The school
Beck’s school grew steadily. Families from across Pennsylvania and other states sent their sons to Lititz to board and study. Over the decades, thousands of boys passed through it.
The school taught reading, writing, arithmetic, geography and other subjects, along with discipline and good manners. Beck was known as a strict but well-liked teacher. Some of his students went on to become business owners, lawyers and public figures.
A Moravian town
Lititz at the time was still largely a Moravian settlement, organized around the church on Church Square. The Moravians placed a strong emphasis on education for both boys and girls, and Linden Hall, the girls’ school founded in 1746, was nearby.
Beck ran his school until 1865, when he retired. He died in 1879 and is buried in the Moravian cemetery.
His school building is part of the historic district around Church Square, and his long career is one reason Lititz built a reputation as a place for education in the 1800s.