WILLIAM HAYNES HAMBLIN

Born: 28 October 1831

Died: 8 May 1872, Clover Valley, Lincoln County, Nevada

Married: 1) Mary Amelia Leavitt, 10 February 1850, 2) Betsey Jane Leavitt, 24 August 1855

CAME TO UTAH 1849 (in the) George A. Smith Company

SUBMITTED BY:

Naida Williamson

Great Granddaughter

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DAUGHTERS OF THE UTAH PIONEERS

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WILLIAM HAYNES HAMBLIN

William Haynes Hamblin was born on 28 October 1831 to Isaiah Hamblin and Daphney Haynes. His ancestry dates back to James and Anne Hamblin who emigrated from St. Lawrence, England to Barnstable, Massachusetts a few years after the Mayflower. The family lived in Ohio until 1839 where young William was a miner. The family then moved to Iowa until 1845. When the family joined the Church they moved with the Saints westward. They stopped at Reaviney, Nebraska 1847-48 while on their way to Utah.

William drove a team across the plains for George A. Smith, An Apostle of the Lord. He lived with Apostle Smith's family in Salt Lake until he married Mary Amelia Leavitt on 10 December 1850. He resided with his wife in Tooele, Utah where his first four children were born. He married Mary's younger sister Betsey Leavitt in 1855.

He was called on an Indian Mission with several other men to the Lamanites in the Elk Horn Mountains, north of Salt Lake. These redmen were of a vicious tribe and the purpose of this mission call was to attempt to establish better relations between these peoples. The missionaries spent one summer teaching the Indians to farm. They also established a fort for their own protection in case the redmen went on the warpath. Eventually war did break out and the Indians attempted to kill the company. One man was killed at the very beginning of the battle. The missionaries placed the dead man on a blanket and headed for the fort. Another man had his fingers shot off. When he was hit he dropped the blanket, jumped around and yelled so loud that the others became disgusted with him as they all faced the possibility of death. William grabbed up the blanket and the dead man and hurried into the fort. He wore a white hat and was chosen as guard because of his marksmanship with a gun. Near the fort was a small lake by which the Indians attempted to get to the fort. While William watched the lake, he heard a commotion in the water. He said he thought it was an Indian. The other men thought it was a duck, but told him to go ahead and shoot if he thought it was not a duck. He shot and the noise stopped. (The next spring the bones of an Indian were found with a hole in his hand).

After the men held off the enemy for two days, the Indians wanted to make a treaty. They said that if the white men would give them the man in the white hat that the others could go free. The men refused. Finally both sides agreed that the missionaries could leave if they would leave all the provisions and equipment except that needed for the journey back home. As the group departed the Indians were already haggling about the provisions and the things left behind.

Shortly after the group left the fort, William and the other man that brought up the rear noticed that some of the Indians were following them. As the lead man entered the water to swim his horse across the river, William told them if they wanted to save their lives that the lead men should swim across to the sandbar while the rear men covered them and then they in turn could cover the last ones to the bar. This they did and when the Indians saw the white men protecting themselves in that manner they gave up the chase yelling with big whoops and finally rode off.

Around 1851 William moved his families to Southern Utah. Here he and his wives filled a mission amongst the Piute Indians and maintained a store. He eventually established a home for Mary at Piute and Betsey at Santa Clara Creek.

In August of 1857, Apostle Smith came to the basin to warn the Saints about Johnston's Army. While he was there, he stayed a night with the Hamblins. He asked William what the place was called. The reply was "Upper Santa Clara Creek". Apostle Smith said, "We will name it after you since everyone calls it Gunlock Hamblin's place."

That is how Gunlock, Utah got its name.

While William lived with the George A. Smiths, he had gained the nickname of "Gunlock Bill" from Brother Smith because he was an expert repairman of gunlocks when rifles were so scarce during the early history of the Saints in Utah. Brother Smith said that if Bill Hamblin made a leather spring for a gunlock, it would work right.

In 1858 after President Brigham Young had visited the Saints in the Santa Clara Valley, he instructed Jacob Hamblin (William's brother) to choose a special group of missionaries to visit the Moquis Indians on the east side of the Colorado River. The Hamblin brothers and several other men took their packs through uncharted country, up steep dangerous mountains to these people. Before they reached their journey's end they contacted the Piutes, Kaibabs, and other tribes. Some of the Indians were unfriendly and threatened to kill them. When they finally reached their destination they found the Moquis people to be a high type of Indian. They lived in houses built upon the cliffs. Many of them had gardens and flocks of sheep. After visiting these friendly people for a while, Jacob and some of the men returned, while William and a few others stayed to learn the way of the Moquis people and try to learn their language.

In 1858 and 1860 expeditions were again made to these people. Some of the tribes were visited in the dead of winter. The last trip cost George A. Smith, Jr.'s life. Unfriendly Navajos stole some of the missionary's horses and when George Jr. went after them he was shot.

William's patriarchal blessing promised him spiritual wealth. His life was full of the Lord's blessings upon him. His family received the Lord's protecting care as well. While he was on one of his three missions for three years, being absent from home that length of time; two of his daughters had gone on a long, tiring search for their cows. They had been gone for a long time and began to weep because of their sore need of the animals. As they were

crying, a man with a long white beard appeared and told them that the cows were over the next draw and that their father was on his way home. They ran excitedly for the cattle, but stopped and turned to thank the man, but alas he had disappeared. They could not find him anywhere. After they had gathered the cattle and returned home, their father returned also shortly after. They told him what had happened. They were in agreement that it must have been one of the three Nephites that had helped them in their need.

William's promise of blessings of the earth was also fulfilled. Some friendly Indians showed him the location of high grade silver ore. The town of Pioche, Nevada, a town not far from the southwestern Utah border, was established when in 1864 William Hamblin staked his claim there. He did not move his family there because of the wickedness of the area. In 1872 one mine produced a record of 36 bars of silver worth $6,000 in three days. It is not surprising that the western boomtown followed the violence and color of other mining areas. Seventy-five men died and were buried there before one died of natural causes.

William had already sold his claim to his mine. He knew that worldly riches were not his aim in life.

Pipe Springs, Arizona was named through an experience of William, "Gunlock Bill" Hamblin and Dudley Leavitt. Several of the missionaries had stopped at this spring and lingered a few days. The men began to jest and finally managed to get Gunlock Bill to wager against Dudley Leavitt that he could shoot a hole through a silk handkerchief. Bill marked off fifty paces and shot, but the force of the bullet pushed the handkerchief aside. As the men laughed to think they had tricked Bill, he said that if Dudley would put his meerschaum pipe that he obtained while in the Mormon Battalion, that Bill could shoot a hole in the bowl without hitting the stem. Dudley naturally refused, but the pipe was laid on a rock near the springs and Bill, who was known as one of the best rifle shots in the southwest, shot a hole in the bowl. Thus the name of the place became Pipe Springs.

After so many years in working with the Indians, dangers coming his way and his life almost taken many times, yet his life was taken, not by the red men, but by the white man. In 1872 the mine that used to be Williams was brought into litigation and he was called to be a witness at the hearings. His wife feared for him, but he went to the trial in May of 1872. During the trial and before he was able to testify, he was poisoned and died from its effects on 8 May 1872.

William Haynes Hamblin died at the age of 42. Though fairly young, he lived a full life and was loved by a numerous family and many friends. He left a heritage shining with honesty and goodness. He had been a miner, store keeper, gunlock-man, hunter, peacemaker missionary, explorer, faithful member of the Church and last, but not least, a beloved and loving father and husband.

William Haynes Hamblin died in Clover Valley, Lincoln County, Nevada on 8 May 1872 and was buried there.

William was the father of the following children:

By his first wife, Mary Amelia Leavitt:

By his second wife, Betsey Jane Leavitt: