Mary A. Flickinger 1841-1932

FLICKINGER

Posted By: Karon Velau (email)
Date: 6/8/2024 at 22:37:58

Mary A. Flickinger
(February 4, 1841 – December 4, 1932)

Obituary
Mrs. R. E. Flickinger
Mrs. Mary A. Flickinger was the daughter of John and Susan Duffield Brackbill of Juniata County, Pennsylvania. She was born at Port Royal, Pennsylvania on February 4, 1841, and, at the time of her death, on Sunday, December 4, lacked only two months of completing her ninety-second year. She grew to womanhood in the spacious and efficient farm home of William and Sidney Turbett. She there received a training that fitted her for promotion as she grew older. In a few years, she was serving as manager in that home. By a regular attendance at church, she early formed the habit of tithing her annual income, for the support of the church, and its various benevolent causes. In this Christian home she was soon accorded the esteem and confidence of an adopted daughter. With the passing of Mrs. Turbett, whom she nursed thru a long lingering illness, she became the executive head in the management of that large and prosperous farm home.
On June 20, 1878 she became the wife of Robert E. Flickinger, a graduate of Princeton Theological Seminary, who had just been called to the pastorate of the Presbyterian Church of Doe Run, Chester County, Pennsylvania. In 1882 they came to Iowa, and after a pastorate of four years at Walnut and Marne, in the Presbytery of Council Bluffs, located at Fonda. There they enjoyed a long and busy pastorate of nearly seventeen years as the first pastor of the church at Fonda. Developing the primary department in the Sunday School of this newly organized church, she found a congenial opportunity for the exercise of her gifts and graces, in the vineyard of her Blessed Master. She continued that service of teaching the Bible to the young with increasing zeal and enthusiasm for the next fifteen years, when the call came to become the matron of Oak Hill Industrial Academy, in the southeast part of Indian Territory. During the sixth year of her service at that institution, she received an accidental injury that caused her to become a helpless invalid and compelled retirement from further service at that institution.
She was reared in the warm and sunny atmosphere of a large and prosperous farm home where God was recognized as the bountiful giver of all good things; where the Bible, as the inspired work of God, was unchallenged and where fidelity to the church, its Sabbath ordinances, was regarded as a matter of course. In 1920 she was enrolled as a life member of the American Bible Society and at the same period gave $1,000 to Buena Vista College to permanently endow a ministerial candidate scholarship in that institution. This was the first endowed scholarship in Buena Vista College. She has been an honor to her kins people and to those who befriended her in youth. She has left an abiding influence over the hearts and lives of those who enjoyed her friendship and approved her good principles. Funeral service was at the home Wednesday afternoon at 2 p.m., conducted by Rev. Paul B. Shedd, pastor of the Presbyterian Church. The order of service had been arranged by Dr. Flickinger. Invocation – Rev. D. G. Luke of Churdan, Duet – “I’m Redeemed,” Miss Matison and Mrs. Jesperson, Scripture – Dr. J. E. Spencer of Lake City, Tributes by the following: Rev. E. L. Marousek, stated clerk of Fort Dodge Presbytery; Mr. Willis C. Edson of Storm Lake, representing Buena Vista College, to which institution Mrs. Flickinger had contributed generously; Dr. W. O. Harless of Fort Dodge, Song, led by Miss Mattison, “Heaven is My Home,” Miss Mattison sang the verse and all joined in the refrain. Closing prayer, Rev. N. A. Price, pastor of the Methodist Church of Rockwell City.
The obituary which had been written by Dr. Flickinger was read by Mr. Shedd. The service was a very impressive one and a splendid tribute to a life which had been lived over a period of so many years in the service of others. The last rites were paid at the grave, where Miss Mattison sang two verses of an old song, which was used on such occasions in Mrs. Flickinger’s early days. Rev. Shedd read the committal service and the benediction was given by Rev. D. G. Luke, a former pastor of the Presbyterian Church of Fonda, which church Dr. Flickinger and his wife had served for seventeen years. In addition to the visiting ministers and others who had part in the service there were the following out of town relatives present: Mrs. Blanche Kepner, Port Royal, Pennsylvania; Miss Minnie R. Rice, Des Moines; Mrs. Bessie Kinch of Altoona, Pennsylvania, and Mr. and Mrs. Clarence Patterson of Rolfe. Source - Rockwell City Advocate & Calhoun County Republican, Rockwell City, Iowa, Thurs., Dec 8, 1932, p.4