William J. Flake
| William J. Flake | |
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| Born |
William Jordan Flake July 3, 1839 North Carolina |
| Died | August 10, 1932 (aged 93) Snowflake, Arizona |
William Jordan Flake (July 3, 1839 – August 10, 1932) was a prominent member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, who helped settle parts of Arizona, and was imprisoned for polygamy.
Flake was born in North Carolina. He eventually moved to Mississippi with his family, and in the early 1840s they became members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Flake moved to Utah with his parents in 1849 by wagon train. In 1850, his father was killed while examining a colony site in California. His widowed mother took the family and became one of the earliest residents of San Bernardino.
In 1858, William Flake married Lucy Hannah White and a year later started a cattle ranch in Beaver, Utah. Flake was called by Church leaders to enter into a plural marriage. He asked his wife to consider the decision, and after much prayer and consideration, she agreed. William Flake and Prudence Kartchner were married in 1868.
In 1877, he was called by LDS Church President Brigham Young to start a settlement in the northern area of what was then the Arizona Territory. William left with a wagon train and herds of cattle for the Little Colorado River region of Arizona and arrived in January 1878. Despite much hardship after spending 13 months on the trail and a winter living in stables and wagons, the settlement survived. In the fall of 1878, Erastus Snow, an LDS Apostle, visited and joined with Flake naming the town Snowflake: "Snow for me and Flake for you." Flake became a rancher and prominent cattleman, noted for his generosity and assistance to his neighbors.
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