It is an honor to be invited to this beautiful hall on this important day of celebration for the Silver Creek valley and the White Mountains. We are very grateful to the Flake family for generously sharing information with us as we worked on Story of the American West for 20 years. We also want to thank Jo Anne and Craig for organizing this event.

William Flake’s life is well documented in his biography, in the biography of his son James Madison Flake as well as in the writings of his wife and daughter. So most of you are probably very familiar with the source material we used in weaving together our story. When we told the story of the White Mountain area from pre-history to World War II, what surprised us was how often Bill Flake appeared as a recurring hero in the narrative.

Looking at our book this morning, we found him playing an important role in 14 chapters, ranging from Sol Barth and the settlement of St. Johns to Polygamy, the timber industry, settlement of many towns from Snowflake to Nutrioso and various encounters with the outlaw gangs of the area.

Bill Flake was a hero, herding milk cows from Iowa to Utah when only a small boy. He was the kind of person who could create value for the benefit of all. He could break horses that no one else could ride. He could turn wild range cattle into oxen that could support a freighting business. And he knew how to convert range land into vibrant communities.

William Flake and his sons were involved in at least four major encounters with outlaws – five if you count Sol Barth. He went to Phoenix to recover livestock stolen during the Pleasant Valley War. He found the bodies of the young cowboys who were lynched near Heber in the true story that led to the writing and filming of The Ox-Bow Incident. One of his sons was killed and another wounded in the apprehension of a robber in Snowflake and he outwitted robbers while traveling home from southern Arizona with a large amount of cash.

But we have selected two stories that we feel do most to provide insight into the character of Bill Flake.

First is the story of the settlement of Snowflake:

After a hard winter journey they arrived on the Little Colorado at the settlement later to be called Sunset. They pushed on to the settlement called [Old] Taylor, six miles east of what is now Joseph City. The Little Colorado settlements were all in the United Order, which did not sit well with Flake. When the ox of a traveler died, Flake gave him a replacement animal, causing a fuss. The man who had donated the animal to the commune objected, saying a board meeting should have been called. So Flake saddled up and began looking for another place to settle.

James Stinson was willing to sell his property in the Silver Creek valley, but he wanted $12,000, an enormous sum in those days. Flake couldn’t find a partner to help him raise the money, and Stinson would not lower the price. But Mrs. Flake was anxious to leave the Old Taylor commune after one of their sons had died in the Little Colorado valley. She said, “Go buy the place. I will do his washing, sewing, anything to help pay the bill, but I can’t stay here.”

Next morning a deal was struck. Stinson agreed to take Flake’s first corn crop as initial payment and Flake agreed to deliver 150 head of Utah-grade cattle each fall for three years.

Flake’s move was not condoned by the church, but he was soon to have many other Mormon settlers in his valley. “In 1876, a large company of converts from Georgia, Alabama, and Arkansas came West. … They were poor people to start with and were on the road nearly a year,” facing outbreaks of smallpox before reaching the Little Colorado settlements where there was no work. Many chafed under the United Order, and many headed to join Flake on his ranch. “They did not care, that he was branded as an apostate; they had also heard that he was a friend to men,” the Flake biography says.

Ben Hansen, in his manuscript Background History of Lakeside-Pinetop, quotes Stinson as telling Flake that the Silver Creek valley was hardly big enough for “one spread, let alone 50 families. The Mormon philosophy and manner of doing things was much different from those of cattle or sheep ranchers. They began carving out a new way of life on this frontier, following pretty much the same pattern as that established by Brigham Young and the Mormons upon entering the Salt Lake Valley.”

The Snowflake land was divided up into 10-acre plots of first-class farmland, 10-acre plots of second-class land and town lots. Each man was entitled to draw for one plot of first-class land ($110), one plot of second-class land ($60) and a town lot ($30), according to the Snowflake Stake history. If a man had multiple wives, he could have a town lot for each of them. Flake drew along with the others and took no profit from subdividing the land.

Another story that shows William Flake’s character is in the polygamy persecutions.

William Flake’s wife Lucy gave this account published in Arizona Memories: “One of our neighbors came one night and asked for help to go to Mexico. He only had one team and his boys would need that to harvest their crop and haul wood for the family. He had no money to buy another outfit so could William lend him one. Well, a wagon, cover, water barrels and a span of our best horses were rigged up for him. The horses were harnessed up, hitched to the wagon and driven up to his door after nightfall. He and his plural wives slipped away. In about a year he returned the outfit, with thanks. That was all that was necessary. If he had never brought them back, it would have been the same.”

She told another story about giving their best horse and a saddle to help a man make a run for the border. “It was always the same, if anyone needed anything and we had it, they knew it was theirs.”

As the story continues, it gets more personal:

“Early in September 1884, the United States Marshal sent word to Father that he would be at Snowflake on the 15th, at noon, to arrest him for polygamy, thus giving him plenty of time to get away, for he did not want to arrest him,” according to Flake’s biography. “They had never met, but the Marshal knew his reputation and that almost every man was his friend, and that he was a good honorable citizen, and not to be compared with the rif-raff that were causing the trouble. About noon on the 15th, he drove up to Flake’s home, introduced himself as Marshal Donovan, and was much surprised when the reply came, ‘Well Marshal, I am your man.’ He served the paper and put him under arrest. Flake said, ‘Unhitch the team and put them in the stable and feed them, my wife will have dinner for us soon, and I will be getting ready to go with you.’ Mr. Donovan said, ‘I want to go back to Holbrook to-night, but the train we take does not leave until 2 p.m. tomorrow. You can stay here tonight, and meet me at the train tomorrow, if you like.’ That suited William much better. So, after dinner the Marshal returned to Holbrook, where they met the following day. The Marshal took out a roll of bills and offered him some money, and said, ‘Take this and pay your own way, buy your own ticket, no one needs to know that you are a prisoner.’ He said, ‘No, Marshal, I am your prisoner, treat me as one, I am not ashamed of it. I have broken no law, I am a victim of persecution.’ ”

At Prescott, William Flake was released on bond. John D. Schone had signed the complaint. “Schone came to him and begged him to jump the bonds saying he would pay them. He cried and said that he did not want to see him go, and that he would never have signed the complaint, but they had gotten him drunk and forced it on him.”

The trials started in November 1884. Ammon Tenney was convicted first and thrown into the local jail with the common criminals. Flake received help from the non-Mormon who had sold him the ranch to create Snowflake. “James Stinson was living at Tempe, and it was a hard trip to Prescott, but when he learned that his friend Flake was in trouble, he went at once to his aid. Father started at once to hunt for some of his friends, and did not stop until he had Tenney out of the filthy prison.”

A plea deal was offered in which Flake would not serve time, but the others would serve eight and a half years at the House of Correction in Detroit. Flake says he went to the judge and objected to the deal. The judge then gave him six months in prison, but cut the sentences of the others by three years.

“His old friend Jim Stinson … was his main help all the way and he really took it hardest of the two,” the biography says. “Next morning he was at the Station to see him take the stage. Just before it was time to leave, Miles P. Romney of St. Johns, under the charge of an officer, came and asked him to go a bond.”

Romney was the editor of a Mormon newspaper in St. Johns. He was to become the grandfather of a future governor of Michigan, and great-grandfather of Mitt Romney, who sought the Republican presidential nomination in 2008.

The Flake biography recounts the conversation: “Father said, ‘I am a convict just starting for the penitentiary, I can’t go on a bond.’ Romney said, ‘You have friends who would, if you asked them. I haven’t a friend in this city and will have to lie in that jail for six months awaiting trial unless you help me.’ Always lending a helping hand, he turned to Stinson and asked him to go the bond; he said that he would, but that it would take another. So he asked Bagnall to sign with Stinson. Bagnall said, ‘I will, if you guarantee me against loss.’ So it was arranged and he bid his friends good-bye, stepped on the waiting stage and off to prison.”

In her account, Flake’s wife said they wound up paying off $2,000 when Romney skipped bail. “Money was scarce and interest high,” she wrote. “It took us seven years to square that two thousand dollars.”

I’ve been kidding my dentist, Doctor Romney, that since the Romneys now famously have so much money, that the Flakes may want their $2,000 back.

But it was Flake’s time in prison that may have revealed most bout his character:

Flake became a champion for prisoners’ rights while he was at Yuma. When they were served spoiled meat, he told the warden: “I am a citizen of this state and a heavy taxpayer. I am in your power, now, but you cannot keep me here very long. I have plenty of friends and when I get out of here we will turn this place upside down. We pay for decent food for our prisoners and they are going to have it or we will find out the reason why.” Food improved. Flake and the other Mormons counseled inmates, re-organized the kitchen and prison industries, took the warden’s children fishing and were beyond model prisoners. “Because of the delay in the mails, the money to pay William’s fine had not arrived when his sentence was up,” his wife wrote. “Some of the prisoners found this out. They had money of varying amounts deposited with the warden. They drew it out and presented it to him. He only accepted it as a loan and returned it as soon as he got to Mesa.”

When Flake reached Snowflake, there was a full celebration of the entire community. “A program of songs, music, readings and sentiments, all written for the occasion, took up the afternoon,” Mrs. Flake wrote.

“Upon his release he was asked which one of his wives he would give up,” the Snowflake Stake history reports. “His answer was neither – he had married both in good faith and intended to support both of them. He had served his sentence and could not be retried on the same charge.”

Again, it’s been an honor and priviledge to visit with you today.