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William Jordan Flake: The Cattleman Who Founded Snowflake, Arizona

A Utah rancher led a wagon train and cattle herds into northern Arizona and helped found the town of Snowflake.

Who Was William Jordan Flake?

William Jordan Flake was born on July 3, 1839, in Anson County, North Carolina, the fourth son of Agnes Love and James Madison Flake. His family joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in 1844, moved to Nauvoo, Illinois, and reached the Salt Lake Valley with Mormon pioneers in 1848. The Wikipedia article on Flake gives the outline of his life.

A Rancher in Utah's Beaver County

His father was killed on the American River in 1849 while examining a gold mining site for the church, and his mother died in 1856, so Flake grew up quickly. On December 30, 1858, at 19, he married Lucy Hannah White. In 1859 the couple started a cattle ranch in Beaver County, Utah, which gave him the experience that mattered later.

The Journey to the Little Colorado

In 1877 church president Brigham Young called Flake to establish a settlement in northern Arizona Territory. He led a wagon train and cattle herds on a 13-month journey and arrived at the Little Colorado River region in January 1878. The first winter was hard, and the settlers lived in stables and wagons.

In the fall of 1878 Apostle Erastus Snow visited, and he and Flake named the town together. The name Snowflake combines their surnames.

Conflict with the Law

In 1868 church leaders called Flake to a plural marriage, and in October of that year he married Prudence Kartchner. On December 5, 1884, a district court in Prescott convicted him of polygamy and unlawful cohabitation under the Edmunds Act, a charge common for Latter-day Saint men at the time. He was fined $500 and sentenced to six months in Yuma Territorial Prison, and he was released on June 11, 1885. He continued serving as a counselor in the Snowflake ward bishopric from prison.

The Key to Flake's Success

The records describe a colonizer who succeeded by taking his livestock and community with him. Cattle were part of the settlement plan, not an afterthought.

The cost was high. The journey was long, the first winter was brutal, and the family bore the legal and personal consequences of his religious practice.

  • Bring the herds with the people: cattle traveled with the wagon train, so food and income arrived together.
  • Start with experience: he had run a ranch in Beaver County since 1859.
  • Work with institutions: he acted on a call from church leaders rather than alone.
  • Endure the first winter: the settlers survived in stables and wagons until proper housing existed.
  • Stay in place: he lived in Snowflake until his death at 93.

Context: Arizona Ranching Beyond Snowflake

Flake's era was also the era of large commercial outfits. Henry Hooker built the Sierra Bonita Ranch in 1872 and weathered the 1891 drought that killed over half the territory's cattle, as the Hooker biography records. Flake's colonization model, a church-directed settlement built around a wagon train, followed a different path than the baron-sized Sierra Bonita.

Death and Honors

Flake died in Snowflake on August 10, 1932, at 93. He had eleven sons and nine daughters. He was posthumously inducted into the Hall of Great Westerners in 1959 as a colonizer and cattleman. For more frontier ranching stories, farm.FM offers a ranching section and a farm.FM story about settlers and cattle.

Timeline

  1. 1839Born in Anson County, North Carolina
  2. 1848Family arrives in the Salt Lake Valley
  3. 1858Marries Lucy Hannah White
  4. 1859Starts a cattle ranch in Beaver County, Utah
  5. 1877Called by Brigham Young to settle northern Arizona
  6. 1878Arrives at the Little Colorado; Snowflake named
  7. 1884Convicted under the Edmunds Act; serves six months in Yuma
  8. 1932Dies in Snowflake, Arizona

Frequently asked questions

Who was William Jordan Flake?

William Jordan Flake (1839-1932) was a Latter-day Saint cattleman and colonizer who led settlers and cattle to the Little Colorado River in 1877-78 and helped found Snowflake, Arizona.

How did Snowflake, Arizona get its name?

Apostle Erastus Snow visited in fall 1878 and joined Flake in naming the town. The name Snowflake combines their two surnames.

Was William Flake a cattleman?

Yes. He started a cattle ranch in Beaver County, Utah, in 1859 and brought cattle herds with the wagon train that founded Snowflake.

When was William J. Flake inducted into the Hall of Great Westerners?

He was posthumously inducted in 1959 at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum, as Arizona's fourth entry.

Sources and further reading

Profiles are compiled from public sources and reviewed against them. See our editorial policy to suggest a correction.

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