urches at Marne, Fonda, Pomeroy and
Varina, Iowa; and a commodious parsonage at Fonda. He has served as a
trustee of Corning Academy, Buena Vista college and of the Presbytery of
Fort Dodge; stated clerk and treasurer of the latter twelve and a half
years, and as Moderator of the Synod of Iowa, at Washington in 1901; and
by special request, as author of the Pioneer History of Pocahontas
county, Iowa, in 1904. Mrs. Flickinger in her youth became a teacher in
the Sunday school, and during all the years that have followed, has been
an efficient and aggressive solicitor and teacher of the children, in
that important department of the work of the church.

She has ever manifested an unusual degree of energy, always preferring
to do all her own home work, rather than have it done by others. One who
enjoyed the privilege of witnessing her unflagging energy and
enthusiastic devotion to her work, rising early and working late, at a
time when she was supposed to be unable to do more than take care of
herself, paid to her this friendly compliment: "You work with the
untiring industry of a bee, the patient perseverance of a beaver, the
overcoming strength of a lion, and the double quickness of a deer."

Her liberal responses to the calls of the needy have been limited only
by her ability to work, save and give.

BERTHA LOUISE AHRENS

"I'll praise my Maker with my breath;
And when my voice is lost in death,
Praise shall employ my nobler powers."
--The Psalmist.

Bertha Louise Ahrens (B. Feb. 26, 1857), missionary teacher among the
Choctaw Freedmen of Indian Territory since 1885, and principal teacher
at Oak Hill Academy, 1905-1911, is a native of Berlin, Prussia. Her
parents, Otto and Augusta Ahrens, in 1865, when she was 8, and a brother
Otto 5, came to America and located on a farm near Sigourney, Iowa,
after one year at Bellville, Ill.; and four, at Harper, Iowa. The
schools and churches first attended used the German language. Her first
studies in English were in the graded schools at Sigourney and here at
seventeen, she became a member of the Presbyterian church under the
pastorate of Rev. S. G. Hair. He loaned her some missionary literature
to read and it awakened a desire on her part to become a missionary.
This desire was expressed to the Women's Missionary society of the
church and she was encouraged to attend the Western Female Seminary, now
college, at Oxford, Ohio. After a course of study at