Robert Elliott Flickinger was born December 3, 1845, in Port Royal, PA, the oldest son of Major Daniel and Julia Ann Saylor Flickinger and a great grandson of John and Elizabeth Hench Rice. He grew up on the family farm at Port Royal and taught school for a number of years. During one interval he served as administrator of his father's estate, taught school during the daytime, and attended two nights a week Airy View Academy under the instruction of David Wilson, Ph. D. He was delayed in entering college because of the death of his mother and read law for two years. On counsel from Prof. Wilson and the Rev. G. F. Hays of Washington and Jefferson College, he decided to study for the ministry. He graduated from Washington and Jefferson with a bachelor of arts degree in 1875, and from the Princeton Theological Seminary with a bachelor of divinity in 1878. Less