Utah and Idaho Pioneer Green Flake

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Green Flake was born a slave on a North Carolina plantation in 1828. His owner, James Madison Flake, joined the Mormon Church in 1844. His passion for the religion moved him to sell his plantation, freeing most of his slaves. He kept Green Flake, then 16, who was himself baptized into the Church in the muddy waters of the Mississippi River.
Brigham Young sent an advance company ahead of the settlers to prepare for the Saints' arrival. Green was a part of that company, taking mules and a carriage to the valley of the Great Salt Lake. The advance company, including Green Flake, arrived in Deseret two days before Brigham Young.

Green was re-baptized in 1847, as were many of the emigrants, renewing their commitment to the faith. As was his charge, he built a cabin and planted crops for the Flake family, which arrived in 1848.

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Green Flake
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James Madison Flake died in 1850. Flake’s wife, Agnes, moved to the West Coast and, in 1854, asked Brigham Young, through a California church leader, to send Green Flake to her so she could sell him. 

By that time, Green Flake was married with a pregnant wife and had proven himself a valuable member of the community. Young refused the request, effectively freeing the man.

Green Flake lived in Utah until sometime in the 1880s, when, after his wife’s death, he moved to Gray’s Lake, Idaho Territory, and later to Idaho Falls. Flake died in Idaho Falls in 1903 and is buried next to his wife in the Union Cemetery in Cottonwood Heights, Utah.
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The Pioneers of 1847 monument at This is the Place Heritage State Park includes a bronze statue of Green Flake, honoring him as a Mormon pioneer.

Green Flake statue
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