Green Flake

Green Flake

Green Flake was born into slavery on January 6, 1828, on the Jordan Flake plantation in Anson County, North Carolina. At the age of ten, Green was separated from his mother and given to James and Agnes Flake. The Flakes moved to Mississippi, where at age sixteen, Green heard the testimony of a Latter-day Saint missionary promising the reunification of families for eternity.

As a new convert to the church, Brigham Young assigned Green to the vanguard company that led the trek west. Green was joined by his future brothers- in-law, Hark Wales and Oscar Smith. The group of forty-two men and twenty-three wagons blazed the trail for tens of thousands to follow. Green is known to have driven the first wagon into Emigration Canyon under the direction of Orson Pratt. They arrived at Parley’s Creek on July 22. The first pioneers of 1847 plowed the land and planted crops for those who came in the following days and months.

Green remained a well-respected saint throughout his life. He spoke at multiple Pioneer Day celebrations alongside church leaders. Brother Flake and many others like him trusted in God’s promise of a reunited family after this life. Many of the enslaved were buried in unmarked graves. Knowing that, Green carved his own headstone which reads, “In my: Father’s house are many mansions.” He was laid to rest next to his wife Martha in the Union Pioneer Cemetery in Cottonwood Heights, Utah, in 1903.