E43: Before They Were Famous: Jacob Hamblin and Jane Manning James

**Lindsay Hansen Park** (0:04)
Jacob Hamblin lived a life of adventure in one sense. He came to know the Indians of the Southwest so intimately that many of his friends described him as taking on the traits of Indians. His accomplishments, his exploring, his diplomacy with Indians, made him a legend in his own time. But he also lived a life of paradox as he tried to act both as an Indian missionary and as an explorer and colonizer. These roles sometimes conflicted. Some might argue that they always conflict.
Todd Compton, A Frontier Life.
Hi, this is Lindsay Hansen Park.

**Bryan Buchanan** (0:54)
And this is Bryan Buchanan.

**Lindsay Hansen Park** (0:56)
Bringing you the story of Mormonism from the shadow of the Everlasting Hills, straight out of Zion, this isn't your grandpa's Mormon history.

**Bryan Buchanan** (1:23)
This is the tale of Mormon saints and sinners from our roots until present day.

**Lindsay Hansen Park** (1:28)
Gird your loins, lock your hearts, and pay your tithing, because we're bringing you the story of Mormonism in all its paradisiacal glory.

**Bryan Buchanan** (1:36)
It's the Sunstone History Podcast.

**Lindsay Hansen Park** (2:00)
On. It's time once again for another fabulous round of Before They Were Famous, highlighting the lives of prominent Mormon colonizers and pioneers and their origin stories.
It's too bad we can't go back in time and bring in Robin Leach to narrate these episodes. Wouldn't that be a great touch? Lifestyles of the rich and pre-famous, I can't do an accent. Today's edition features two famous Mormon movers and shakers, Jacob Hamblin and Jane Manning James. Both were born about the same time, both have names that start with the letter J, and both arrived in Nauvoo around the same period of time. But other than that, their lives have very little in common.
Still, we feel that each of these characters is important to know about because each of their lives tells us something different about the larger story of Mormonism.

**Bryan Buchanan** (2:47)
First up to bat is Jacob Hamblin, not because the dude has to preside in this episode. He would later be known as a prominent Western pioneer who helped settle much of southern Utah. He was an important colonizer, doing outreach to local tribes, most notably in Tooele in southern Utah. His relationship with indigenous tribes as an Indian interpreter would place him in a sort of legendary status in the Wild West. But before all that, he had a relatively underwhelming start, a poor baby being born on the wild frontier of the United States like many white Mormon converts.

**Lindsay Hansen Park** (3:15)
He was born in Salem, Ohio, April 2nd, 1819 His Christian name was Jacob Hamblin. He would live a poor frontier upbringing. He was the quintessential frontiersman. When I watched the cartoon of Disney's American Legends, he's like the Mormon Johnny Appleseed. He was six feet tall, hardly educated, carried a pan for a hat. Just kidding, he didn't. But as biographer Todd Compton writes, he left an incredible amount of diaries, autobiographies, and letters. Whereas other frontiersmen, most in fact, left no primary documentation at all. Now might be a good time to talk about Jacob's early conversion experience. All Mormons have their conversion experience. Even if you're born into the faith, you have one the day your heart was converted to the gospel of Christ. Let's talk about Jacob's. I've read hundreds of accounts like his before. And before I understood the broader context of this history, I assumed that every American was like a Methodist or something. They were just going about on the edges of America, completely content and confident in their beliefs. And then they found Mormonism and went through a spiritual struggle with Mormonism that answered their questions. That's how a lot of our Pioneer Ancestors accounts read. Like they were all just sitting around waiting and seeking and then there it was. But the truth is there was a movement on the larger American frontier. You had all these consolidated Puritan communities, but with the Western expansion and colonial occupation, there were all these new confluences of ideas and practices and behaviors and beliefs. Spirituality was coming in from all over the East and Americans were interacting with other immigrants traveling from all over the world, bringing their practices with them.
When you can't all meet in a church house because you're all spread out on the frontier, the religious becomes less community-based and you're sort of left to your own devices.
Hamblin's family was no exception. As a young boy maturing into adulthood, Jacob had a lot of questions regarding the meaning of life. One night, he said to have had a dream where he saw a quote, a person of smiling countenance who gave him two books to read. And yes, they were both Cleon Skousen, naked communist and naked capitalist. He really knew very specific dreams.