In 1888 John Flick Sr. gave a memorandum of his life: Much of the information on the Flick family
journey to America was taken from this memorandum.

John Flick worked with his father at Particle Furnace, Pa., in his youth. The family relocated to a farm near Loretto in the Fall of 1835. John worked summers as a farmhand and worked on the Portage Road during the remainder of the year. He hitched and hauled cars, and quarried and cut stone for the road. Except for one winter spent jobbing cord wood in Hamilton County, Ohio, John worked on the Portage Road until 1842. The first two years of married life were spent in his father's home at the foot of Four, and alternately at head of Six. In February of 1842, John bought his own 75 acre farm in Carroll Township and immediately moved into a small log house. The land was developed and paid for by thrift and hard labor, and John was able to purchase 75 more acres from Rev. Peter Lemke in 1848. The new property adjoined the existing farm to the north and was all woodland. It was cleared bit by bit and brought under cultivation.
In 1853, John Flick built a large brick home to accomodate his growing family; a home was one of the finest and most durable for its time, still well known throughout the area. The barn was replaced in 1856 with a new frame structure, also innovative for its time. The adjacent, 66 acre Conrad Luther farm was purchased in 1861, on the western side. The farm then totalled approximately 200 acres. In later life, John Flick and his second wife lived "in town," where he "lived in quiet happiness, enjoying the good opinion of his fellow man."

The locally famous Flick home of 1853 is further described in a typed memo fo 1934 attributed to his daughter Elizabeth: “The carpenter work of the house was in charge of John Buck, Dr. Buck’s father, who had helped him his brothers, John, William and jake Buck, and a Mr. Tomlinson. They all boarded with us at the time. Father cut the stone, hauled, dressed and laid them, for the wall for the cellar and foundation. He gathered the sand for plastering from the high-way, sweeping it up, and sifting it. The brick wall of the house was 18 inches thick for the first story and 15 for the second. Father was a natural born mechanic. [Counting] to the time required to burn the brick, and the necessity of preparing all the doors, windows, sills and facings by hand, it required three years to complete the house.”

More About John Flick:
Fact 1: On Baptisimal Records called Johann

1896 Will Book, Cambria County, Pa. 5-146 John Flick Sr.

Cecilia Flick wrote in "Dr. Lawrence Flick As I Knew Him," the following about his mother Elizabeth Sharbaugh:

"From all reports, Grandmother Flick was very industrious. Besides the work for her growing family, she helped in the fields, before Elizabeth and Albert were old enough to take over. On a farm, the milking of the cows, the feeding and care of the pigs and chickens fall to the women. Grandmother also raised flax and hemp which she spun into linen for bed sheets, table supplies, and clothing; hemp for bed ticks, and wool for their clothing, which she also made. It was necessary to card and wash the flax and hemp before spinning. Of course, the children could help with this. Owing to the high cost of calico and muslin during the Civil War, twenty-eight cents a yard, one year she spun one hundred yards of these materials. Dr. Flick kept the old spinning wheel."

More About Elizabeth Schabacher:
Fact 1: The name Schabacher came to be spelled Sharbaugh

According to the 1870 Census, Mary E. was 40 years old, living with her mother Catherine in Allegheny Township, Cambria County, Pa.

Mary was a native of Loretto, Pa.