According to Osmer Flake’s biography, the couple had a “bed-stead made with an axe as the only tool, two log benches he made, a frying pan, a case knife he found and for which he whittled a handle, two tin plates, and a spoon that he cut out of wood with his pocketknife.” Though colorful, this seems highly apocryphal inasmuch as both her family and the Lymans were living in close proximity.

For the first three months they lived with the Lymans in Cedar City before accompanying them in their move to Beaver. Lucy and William started marriage with very few possessions. James Madison was killed while on the gold mission to California, and Agnes died of consumption while living with Amasa Lyman and returned with him to Utah when the Saints were recalled from the San Bernardino Mission. Freeing their slaves, they came to Nauvoo in 1844. William Flake was the oldest son of James Madison and Agnes Love Flake, who had converted to Mormonism in Mississippi. In February 1858 Lucy met William Jordan Flake they were married 30 December 1858. Her mother’s sorrow at having to leave her family after being reunited in Utah previews Lucy’s own sorrow at leaving Beaver some twenty-four years later. Here they were reunited with their relatives, only to be separated again in 1853 when they were called as a part of the Iron County Mission. The family crossed the plains in 1850 and settled thirty-five miles south of Salt Lake City in an area which was later to be called Lehi. Her father was chosen as one of the men who remained in Nauvoo to aid the poorer Saints in preparing to leave for the West. Her earliest recollection was of being shown the city of Nauvoo from the top of the Nauvoo Temple. Her parents joined The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints before Lucy was born.

Lucy Hannah White was born 23 August 1842 in Knox County, Illinois, the oldest daughter of Samuel Dennis and Mary Hannah White.

The quotations used herein are taken from her three-volume journal, using the punctuation and spelling as found in the diaries in order to maintain the flavor of the original. Two subsequent volumes record her day-to-day activities from January 1894 until shortly before her death in January 1900.

The story of her life in Utah, her move to Arizona, and the summary of her life to January 1894 are contained in the first volume of her writings. She began a day-by-day diary, while at the same time recording a summary of her life up until that time. When Andrew Jenson toured the various stakes in 1893, advising members to keep diaries, he drew a responsive commitment from Lucy Hannah White Flake.

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