Remember Our Heritage

 

JACOB VERNON HAMBLIN Jacob Hamblin was born on 6 April 1819 in Ohio. His parents were farmers, and he learned farming as a youth. In 1836 his family moved to Wisconsin Territory and homesteaded at a place called Spring Prairie. Hamblin’s father told Jacob when he was nineteen that he had been a faithful boy and that it was time for him to go into the world and do something for himself. Hamblin then traveled more than a hundred miles west and went to work in the Galena mines. After working for a few months, he barely escaped a rock fall that killed his co-worker. The incident gave him an aversion to mining, and he never returned to the mines. Collecting his wages, he returned to Wisconsin and paid for the land he had helped homestead. After listening to the Mormon preaching, he joined the Mormon Church on 3 March 1842. Hamblin started missionary work almost immediately and became known as a faith healer, showing the signs of “those that believe,” in his words. The next year he moved to Nauvoo, Illinois, where the Mormon Church headquarters were located. Anti-Mormon sentiment was building, and Hamblin and his family received their share. At that time, he met and married Rachel Judd. His family moved west with the Mormons. He settled in Tooele Valley and became acquainted with local Indians who knew him as a friend. In 1854 Hamblin was called as a missionary to the Indians in southern Utah. Again, he became known for his influence with Native Americans because of his integrity and his willingness to be friends with them. He had many spiritual experiences that caused the Indians to consider him invested with godly powers. After serving in his Indian mission for more than a year, Hamblin moved his family from Tooele to what is now Santa Clara. He then became president of the southern Utah Indian mission.

 

JACOB VERNON HAMBLIN In the fall of 1857 Hamblin went north to confer with Brigham Young in Salt Lake City. On the way he encountered the Fancher Party of emigrants, California-bound from Arkansas, and Missouri. They asked him about the road and places to camp. He directed them to Mountain Meadows on the old Spanish Trail, about three miles from his home. He later expressed horror and repugnance at news of the massacre of the Fancher Party at Mountain Meadows. His wife Rachel helped care for the massacre survivors at the ranch. Jacob Hamblin had four wives: Lucinda Taylor; Rachel Judd; Sarah Priscilla Leavitt; Louisa Bonelli. He fathered twenty-four children and had several adopted children. His legacy was a missionary and friend to the Native Americas, helping smooth relations between them and the more recent arrivals in the land.

 

THOMAS DUNLOP BROWN Thomas Dunlop Brown was born Dec.16, 1807 in Scotland. He joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in the Liverpool Branch, British Mission on June 9, 1844. Thomas emigrated to the U.S.A. on April 6, 1849. T. D. Brown and Henry Miller had a store in Kaysville, Iowa. Other information in the Church Historians Office shows articles written by Thomas Dunlap Brown or T. D. Brown as referring to him, as follows:

 

THOMAS DUNLOP BROWN Some of the highlights shown in the above references are Jan. 25, 1854, List of emigrants helped by the Perpetual Fund shows the name of T. D. Brown. By this it would seem he had again been to England. April 3, 1854, shows his name again as being a member of the 35th Quorum of Seventy, as published in the Deseret News. April 3, 1854, shows a list of missionaries of the Parley P. Pratt Company in T. D. Brown's own handwriting as secretary‑recorder of the group. Inventory of materials they carried to the Southern Indian Mission, signed by T. D. Brown, Clerk. Feb. 27, 1855, a new society named Philharmonic Society, meeting in T. D. Brown’s large room. Mar. 20, 1855, a meeting held at Cedar City, Utah schoolhouse.

 

WILLIAM HENEFER William Henefer's father, James Henefer Sr. (1791-1862), was a tinner, buckle maker, and iron monger. When William was seven years old, his mother, Charlotte Hicken Hennefer (1793-1832) died, and his father remarried around 1831 to Elizabeth Smith. In October 1840 two missionaries convinced William and his brother James Hennefer, that the gospel was true, and they were baptized in 1844. They immediately started to save for the trip to America. It took William four years to save enough. After his arrival in America, he obtained work in Trenton, New Jersey, where he met his future wife, Rebecca Ann Hays. They traveled to Council Bluffs where they joined a company of Saints going west. Upon their arrival, they found a home and William opened the first sanitary barbershop in Salt Lake City, known as Henefer’s Shaving Salon. In the spring of 1853, William and his brother, James, were called to take their families to Henefer where they were to help the migrating Saints as much as possible by being blacksmiths and raising fresh produce.

 

WILLIAM HENEFER In the winter William was a policeman. In April Conference 1854 he called to the Southern Indian Mission where he helped build Fort Santa Clara and Fort Harmony. He did proselyting work among the Indians of Southern Utah. William was called to serve as a member of the Deseret Dramatic Society to help with productions at the Social Hall. He was also called to be a freighter. He ran freight all over, even to San Bernardino, California. The town of Heneferville was named after William and his brother James. In 1885 William asked to be released from his mission in Hennefer. He returned home to Salt Lake where he opened a barbershop on Main Street. He served as Sunday School Superintendent and ward teacher. ---by Joan Hennefer Clark