Winner of the Juanita Brooks Prize in Mormon Studies

Frontiersman, colonizer, missionary to the Indians, and explorer of the American West, Jacob Hamblin has long been one of the most enigmatic figures in Mormon history. In this defining biography, Todd Compton examines and disentangles many of the myths and controversies surrounding Hamblin. His Grand Canyon adventures and explorations as a guide alongside John Wesley Powell are well documented, as are his roles as a missionary, cultural liaison, and negotiator to the Indian tribes of southern Utah and Arizona. Hamblin struggled in this latter role, sometimes unable to bridge the gulf between Mormonism and Indian culture. He disavowed violent conflict and ceaselessly sought peaceful resolutions where others resorted to punitive action. He strove above all for mutual understanding in the absence of conversion.

A Frontier Life provides a rich narrative that fleshes out a picture of a sometimes vilified figure, particularly in regard to his connection to the infamous Mountain Meadows Massacre, where Compton provides nuanced discussion clarifying Hamblin’s post-massacre role—he was not present at the massacre, but reported on it to both Brigham Young and military investigators. Compton’s engagement with Mormon historiography and previous Hamblin portrayals will make this work of particular interest to both scholars and students. The casual reader will take pleasure in learning of a true pioneer who lived life at the geographical, cultural, and spiritual boundaries of his era. This dramatic, entertaining biography is a truly significant contribution to Mormon history.


Winner of the Evans Biography Award, the John Whitmer Historical Society Best Biography Award, and the Francis Armstrong Madsen Best Book Award. 


 

Todd M. Compton specializes in Mormon history and the classics and has published numerous articles and five books in these areas, including In Sacred Loneliness: The Plural Wives of Joseph Smith and Fire and Sword: A History of the Latter-day Saints in Northern Missouri (coauthored with Leland H. Gentry.)

List of Figures

Preface

Introduction

1. “A Vast Unsettled Wilderness”: Growing Up on the Frontier, 1819–1841

2. “He Preached What I Had Long Been Seeking For”: Mormonism, 1842–1849

3. “My Wife Violently Attacted with Colery”: Cholera Country: Crossing the Plains, 1850

4. “When I Herd the Schreems of the Chirldin”: Becoming a “Messenger of Peace” in Tooele, 1850–1853

5. “We Ware Mormans Thare White Brothers”: The Southern Utah Indian Mission, 1854

6. “The Chief Shed Teers When He Saw Our Women and Children”: Founding Santa Clara, 1854–1856

7. “I Was Apointed to Take Charge of the Mision”: Marriage and Massacre during the Utah War, 1857

8. “The Gentiles Are Fiting Up Steamers to Explore the Colerado”: Encounter with Ives on the Lower Colorado, 1858

9. “In & Through the Roughefist Country It Has Ever Been My Lot to Travel”: Crossing the Colorado, Visiting the Hopis, late 1858

10. “Mr. Hamblin Has Discharged His Duty”: Collecting the Children and Second Expedition to the Hopis, 1859–1860

11. “Your Son . . . Partially Arose And Said Here I Am Shot”: Murder on the Trail and Flight from Quichintoweep, 1860

12. “I Want You to Give Dilligent Heed to This Letter”: Gathering the Bones, 1861

13. “The Last Vestige of the Fort . . . Had Disappeared and in [Its] Place Roar Now the Wild Torrents of the River”: The Big Washout, January 1862

14. “The Rocks Stand Up Biding Defiance to Wind and Weather in All Manner of Shapes”: Circling the Grand Canyon, 1862

15. “The Hight of the Rock and Its Smooth Surfis on Each Side P[r]esented the Seenery Grand and Sublime”: Founding Pearce’s Ferry, 1863

16. “A Raft Was Built on Which Bro Hamblin and Dayton Crossed”: Founding Lee’s Ferry and Callville, 1864

17. “Why She Ever Married ‘Old Jacob’ Was a Mystery”: The Death of Rachel and Marriage to Louisa, 1865

18. “I Never Was So Ashamed of Anything in My Life”: Murder and Massacre at Pipe Spring, 1866

19. “They Begged Him to Be Their Big Chief, Saying That They Had No Captains Left”: Re-founding Kanab and Boating on the Colorado, 1866–1868

20. “Started for the Canab Mision”: At Kanab and Pahreah, 1869

21. “We Will Now Ack Knowlage but One Father Suck the Milk of One Mother”: With Powell among the Uinkarets, and Treaty at Fort Defiance, 1870

22. “I Was Not Happy Unless I Was Miserable, For I Knew Nothing Except Hardships”: Rituals and Trials of a Missionary Family, 1870

23. “A Slow-Moving, Very Quiet Individual, Who Said He Was Jacob Hamblin”: Exploring the Escalante; Navajos in Kanab; At Lee’s Ferry, 1871

24. “They Died Off So Fast That There Were Hardly Any Left in a Short Time”: The Fate of the Santa Clara Paiutes, 1871

25. “Jacob Whiled Away the Evening ‘Yarning’”: Helping Powell and Lee, 1872

26. “We Wass the First Ones That Ever Crosed the Cilored with Wagons”: Mormons to Arizona, 1873

27. “The Indians . . . Were Murdered in Cold Blood by One Mccarthy and His Employees”: The Grass Valley Murders, Navajo Negotiations, and the Arizona Mission, 1874

28. “The Navajoes Carried on Quite an Extensive Trade with Our People”: At the Colorado Post, 1875

29. “If He Had His Choice He Should Desire to Live in Arizona”: Helping to Found the Little Colorado Mission, 1876–1877

30. “The Watering Places Are All Occupide by the White Man”: Hamblin, Powell, and the Kaibab Paiutes, 1877–1880

31. “He Had Always Led a Frontier Life”: Recircling the Grand Canyon; Counselor to Lot Smith, 1878

32. “I Am Now Located with a Part of My Family in Round Valley”: Springerville, Arizona, 1879–1882

33. “We Found a Nice Farm on the Frisco River”: New Mexico, Old Mexico, 1882–1885

34. “In a Small Cabin in the High Mountains of New Mexico”: The End of the Trail, 1886

35. Jacob Hamblin: Legacy

Appendix A: Jacob Hamblin’s Families

Appendix B: Jacob Hamblin’s Trips To and Across the Colorado

Notes

Bibliography

Index