Hark Wales
Hark Lay Wales was an early pioneer, part of Brigham Young’s advance party that entered the Salt Lake Valley on July 22, 1847.
Hark was one of the four male slaves belonging to the estate of John Crosby in Mississippi. He was given to Sytha Crosby after her marriage to William Lay. Sytha joined The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Mississippi and she and her relatives wanted to join the Saints in the west. The family sent four slaves ahead of their party to establish a home in the west. Among those four slaves were Hark and his brother Oscar Smith (who had been inherited by William Crosby). The other two, known as Henry Brown and Mark, died in the winter of 1846–1847.
Hark and Oscar were selected to be part of Brigham Young’s vanguard company and, along with Orson Pratt and Green Flake, were tasked with scouting the terrain, charting a course, and improving the trail to Utah.
- But it was the enslaved men, Hark Lay, Oscar Crosby, and Green Flake, who – largely following the Donner Party’s path from the year before – made the descent into Emigrant Canyon and entered the Salt Lake Valley on 22 July 1847. By the time Brigham Young arrived in the valley, just two days later via the road created by Lay, Crosby, and Flake, the party had already started the work of building homes and planting potatoes, buckwheat, and beans.[1]
Hark traveled to San Bernardino Valley in California with the Lay family to establish a new Mormon settlement. According to California law, he was set free. He dropped the Lay surname and chose Wales as his new last name. He later settled in a small African American community in the Salt Lake Valley. He operated mining claims in the Big Cottonwood Canyon Mining District.
He is believed to have died in 1881 or 1887.[2] He is buried at the Union Fort Pioneer Cemetery in Cottonwood Heights, in a grave that was unmarked until 2019.
It is unknown if Hark was ever baptized into the Church; researchers conclude there are no records of his baptism.[3]
On July 22, 2022, a new monument honoring Utah's black pioneers was unveiled and dedicated. The statues in the monument depict Green Flake, Jane Manning James with her two sons, Sylvester and Silas, as well as brothers Hark Wales, and Oscar Smith. Each played instrumental roles in the settlement of Utah. The dedication marked the 175th anniversary of the first wagon company’s 1847 arrival in the Salt Lake Valley.[4]
