FLICKINGER, England D.--Representative of a substantial German family which has been assisting in the agricultural and civic progress of Medina county for more than half a century, England D. Flickinger is one of the most thoroughly educated and intelligent citizens of Westfield township. For the past eighteen years he has been profitably engaged in general farming and stock-raising, the nucleus of his fine place of one hundred and seventy-two acres being a portion of the old homestead on which he was born which he purchased from his father. He was born April 5, 1863, to John F. and Hannah J. (Swagler) Flickinger, the family being of German origin and the great-grandfather a native of that country. The two succeeding generations, represented by Daniel Flickinger, the grandfather, and John F., the father of England D., were natives of Pennsylvania. John F. Flickinger was born in Somerset county, that state, on the 7th of August, 1826, and is of a family of nine children of whom four were natives of the county named. He was quite young when his parents migrated to Medina county and his father (Daniel Flickinger) purchased one hundred and sixty-four acres of land for six hundred dollars. This he partially cleared and improved, planted an orchard, constructed a bank barn and other buildings, and had made it into a desirable homestead when he sold the property in 1855. He then moved two miles north into Chippewa township, where he purchased one hundred and five acres, which he also improved, remaining upon this farm until August, 1872, when he moved to Orrville, Wayne county, selling his last homestead two years thereafter. His wife died August 16, 1880, leaving five children, as follows: Mary Ann, who became the wife of Jacob Copenhaver of Allen county, Indiana; John F., who is the father of England D., Josiah, now a resident of Kansas; Noah, of Carroll county, Illinois; and Catherine, who married Rudolph Dague. Grandfather Flickinger was a faithful member of the German Reformed church, with which he held important official relations. John F. Flickinger assisted his father in his farming enterprises until such time as he commenced to promote his own. Eventually he came into possession of the homestead adjoining Chippewa Lake and increased the original tract to an area of two hundred acres, also serving Westfield township as trustee and in other capacities for a number of years. On February 24, 1851, John F. Flickinger married Miss Hannah Swagler, born in Milton township, Wayne county, Ohio, March 29, 1829, and daughter of Jacob and Hannah (Howe) Swagler, who came west in 1822. Mrs. Swagler died in 1874 and of her six children only two are living--those who have become Mrs. Alvin Kimmel and Mrs. John F. Flickinger, the latter having been a resident of Westfield township since her marriage in 1851. She is the mother of five children, of whom Melvin S., Lakey J., England D. and Mina D. are still alive. John died in infancy.

England D. Flickinger was reared a farmer boy, attended the district school and completed his education by a course at the Ada Normal University. Leaving the Normal, he taught one term in the country, residing on the home farm until he was twenty-one years of age. After his marriage in his twenty-ninth year he settled on a part of the old homestead, which, as stated he purchased from his father. He remodeled the residence, erected a fine bank barn and out-buildings for his machinery and the handling of his crops, added various tracts of land to the original farm, and brought everything to the up-to-date standard of convenience and saving of unnecessary labor. In response to his neighbors' requests he also gave much of his time to the public affairs of his township, having served several years as its trustee and for the past five as a member of the school board. In political matters of local import his is of independent action, but in national issues supports the Democracy, believing that its principles and policies more closely bear upon the life of the average American than those embraced in the system of Republicanism. Mr. Flickinger's wife was formerly Miss Jessie V. Stone of Sterling, daughter of John E. and Mary (Sellars) Stone, and the three children of their marriage are: Harold S., Helen H. and Angell V. Both parents are valued members of the Methodist church.

SOURCE: pgs 1663-1664: "History of the Western Reserve" by Harriet Taylor Upton.  Chicago: Lewis Pub. Co., 1910, 2184 pgs.