Compton, “A Frontier Life: Jacob Hamblin, Explorer and Indian Missionary” (reviewed by Bryan Buchanan, 5/27/2013)

Review
Original Review Date: 5/27/2013

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Title: A Frontier Life: Jacob Hamblin, Explorer and Indian Missionary Author: Todd M. Compton Publisher: University of Utah Press
Author: Todd M. Compton
Genre: Biography, Mormon History, Native American History
Year Published: 2013
Number of Pages: 621
Formats Available: Hardcover, Kindle
ISBN10: 1607812347
ISBN13: 978-1607812340
Price: $44.95

Reviewed by Bryan Buchanan for the Association for Mormon Letters
Review date: 5/27/2013

**Note—this review was prepared from an advanced reader’s copy

It is a sad truth in biography that while some important figures are left without any substantial biography, others have been privileged with several book-length treatments. Jacob Hamblin certainly fits into the latter category. His life has been chronicled by Paul Bailey (“Jacob Hamblin : Buckskin Apostle” 1948, Pearson Corbett (“Jacob Hamblin, the Peacemaker” 1952), Juanita Brooks (“Jacob Hamblin : Mormon Apostle to the Indians” 1980) and Hartt Wixom (“Hamblin : A Modern Look at the Frontier Life and Legend of Jacob Hamblin” 1996). Granted, of these writers, only Juanita Brooks was a “real” historian and her own biographer, Levi Peterson, describes her account of Hamblin as “simple” and “neither fiction nor biography, but an uncertain combination of both” (Peterson here borrows Brooks’ judgment of Bailey’s biography, in turn). Why then would Todd Compton attempt—in “A Frontier Life: Jacob Hamblin, Explorer and Indian Missionary”—to once again depict the admittedly eventful life of Hamblin? Two excellent reasons: Compton notes that none of these previous efforts were academic in their approach nor did they make full use of the wealth of primary sources available on their subject.

Todd Compton comes at the current project with previous experience in the biographer’s craft. In fact, given that “In Sacred Loneliness” involved 33 mini biographies, one could say that Compton is a grizzled veteran of the trade. His eye for detail, obvious in his previous writing projects, is evident here also. While he is clear in the introduction to point out that he does not discount the supernatural, he states that a responsible historian must acknowledge that “sometimes the earliest accounts of an incident do not include the supernatural aspects, the more visionary perspectives developing later.” As this is one of the most valuable elements of Compton’s approach, let me share one example of how this come to bear in “A Frontier Life.”

One of the most famous and impactful events of Hamblin’s life is his 1852 “conversion” to nonviolence where Indians (the term that Compton uses throughout) were concerned.

Hamblin would later relate that the “Holy Spirit forcibly impressed me that it was not my calling to shed the blood of the scattered remnant of Israel, but to be a messenger of peace to them.” His published autobiography (ghostwritten by James Little and published in 1881) depicts this paradigm shift as sudden and decisive. However, Compton peels back the layers of years to show that the event (in which Hamblin’s gun misfired when aimed at a Goshute armed with arrows), part of a small campaign near Grantsville, was likely not quite so cut and dried at the time. He notes that Hamblin attempted to kill an Indian not long after this supposedly decisive event and that, while Hamblin was unquestionably a tempering force for good in southern Utah, the “conversion” took time to crystallize.

Another welcome aspect of Compton’s writing is his goal to find balance where possible. He notes that, unfortunately, when dealing with Indian matters this is not usually possible. Due to the lack of written history from their perspective, “often we are missing half of the story.” His analysis of Hamblin’s interactions with fellow whites is fortunately assisted by the availability of multiple accounts. Compton, to his credit, does not portray his subject as an unblemished hero as biographers are known to do. A good example is his handling of the tension between Hamblin and John D. Lee in the 1870s. Compton carefully assesses the available evidence on both sides, pointing out that “it is the path of least resistance for the historian to simply accept [a rich, full diary (i.e. John D. Lee’s) from only one side of a conflict] and let it tell the main story.” I thought Compton’s assessments of the various characters scattered throughout Hamblin’s life were fair, even generous in the best sense of the word.

Anyone reading a biography of an important Mormon figure who lived in the 1850s will likely have the same question: what role, if any, did they play in the Mountain Meadows Massacre? On the eve of the horrific event, Hamblin was wending his way to Salt Lake with his wife-to-be Sarah Leavitt (sister of Dudley Leavitt, possible participant in the massacre, and grandfather of Juanita Brooks). They were accompanied by several Indian chiefs (including Tutsegabits) who were going to meet with Brigham Young. In fact, they met the Fancher party en route and Hamblin directed them to Mountain Meadows for forage. In Salt Lake, Hamblin was sitting in the meeting when a tired James Haslam arrived asking what to do with the emigrant train. Hamblin later remembered Young saying “They have a perfect right to pass, when I want Marshal law proclaimed…You will know it!” Hamblin’s wife Rachel, who had stayed home, could hear the shooting at the massacre site from where she was staying.

The husband of the wife she was caring for soon showed up with the children who had survived the massacre. Rachel tended to the children and ended up keeping three of them in her home for a period. Compton notes that Hamblin carried two important missives from Young as he returned: the proclamation of martial law and orders to muster troops in southern Utah. Frederick Dellenbaugh, who accompanied John Wesley Powell on the 1871-73 expedition, later said that had Hamblin been in the area, the massacre would not have taken place. Given his tempering effect in other events throughout his Sife, there may be something to that.

One drawback of a chronological biography (which, overall, I think I prefer) is that strands of things are sometimes difficult to piece together. Getting a picture of Hamblin’s domestic life is thus not easy. As becomes clear once one works through the biography, Hamblin was almost never home. I would have liked to see more about his interactions with his wives but my sense is that was simply not possible. The most intriguing part of his domesticity is his relationships with his Indian wives (all of which is clouded in uncertainty, not surprisingly). A few snippets of his impact on his children come through but, again, it is unfortunate that more was not available for Compton to employ.

There is simply an enormous amount of detail here (and I’ve been told he cut quite a bit!)—not having known much of Hamblin beforehand or regional Indian history for that matter, the sheer number of individuals involved made it feel a bit like “War and Peace” on occasion. The only negative I can say of “A Frontier Life” is that the narrative was a bit dry in places. However, when one remembers the incredible amount of life that Hamblin lived (his crossings of the Colorado alone could be their own story), I don’t know how exactly a biographer would make it flow better without venturing into the “fictionalized biography” genre. As one would expect, the research was clearly labor-intensive—Compton is very obviously familiar personally with the places involved not to mention the history. After fits and starts, Jacob Hamblin’s eventful life has finally received a fitting chronicle.