Oscar Hamblin

Oscar Hamblin, his personal and family background, and his involvement in the Mountain Meadows Massacre

Oscar Hamblin

1833-1862

Biographical Sketch

A native of rural Geauga County in northeastern Ohio, Oscar Hamblin was a westering New Englander whose family had pioneered in Ohio and Wisconsin before moving to western Illinois and then to frontier Utah where he pioneered in southern Utah. He was an American frontiersman and Indian interpreter.

Early Years: From Ohio Westward

Hamblin was born in Bainbridge in rural Geauga County in northeast Ohio, the eighth of eleven children born to Isaiah Hamblin (1790-1856) and Daphne Haynes (1797-1847). His Puritan forebears settled in Massachusetts, then later in Connecticut before moving to Grand Isle County in Lake Champlain in northwestern Vermont.

In the 1820s, the Hamblin family moved to Ashtabula County, then Geauga County in northeastern Ohio. They were in Ohio until the mid-1830s when they moved to Spring Prairie, Wisconsin.

Jacob Hamblin (1819-1886), Oscar's older brother, was converted to Mormonism and visited Nauvoo, Illinois, the main center of Mormonism in the early 1840s. In 1843, Jacob Hamblin returned to Wisconsin and convinced many in his family to resettle in western Illinois among the Mormons. In 1844, the Mormon leader Joseph Smith was assassinated and in 1845, unrest continued between Mormons and the original settlers in western Illinois.

Migration to Utah

In 1846, under the leadership of Brigham Young, the Mormons began abandoning their city on the Mississippi River and rolling across the prairies of Iowa Territory. The Hamblins were part of that exodus. For several years, they remained in the area of what would later become Council Bluffs, Iowa.

In 1850, they joined the Aaron Johnson company to immigrate to the valley of the Great Salt Lake. Also in the company was Joel White who with his wife and his brothers would later settle in southern Utah.

The Mormon Trail

Outbreaks of cholera caused numerous deaths on the overland trail that season but the Hamblin family arrived safely in the fall. They passed the usual milestones on the trail: Fort Kearney, the South Fork of the Platte River, Chimney Rock, Fort Laramie, the Sweetwater River, Independence Rock, Devil's Gate, Green River, Fort Bridger, Bear River, and Weber River. After suffering the usual hardships of overland trail they arrived in the valley of the Great Salt Lake in mid-September.

Following their arrival, they moved to the southwest to settle in Tooele.

Life in Tooele

Conflict with local Native Americans caused the settlers around Tooele to form a militia. Oscar Hamblin, his older brother, Jacob Hamblin, their friend Dudley Leavitt, and the other adult males of the community were members of the militia. March 13, 1852 was the notable day in which Jacob Hamblin led a party that included Oscar Hamblin, Dudley Leavitt and others against the Goshute Indians. Confronting a Goshute, Hamblin fired at him while his adversary shot arrows at Hamblin. However, Hamblin's weapon misfired while the arrows of the Goshute likewise went astray. Thus, despite their most strenuous efforts, neither was able to harm the others.

Later, as Jacob Hamblin reflected on this experience he came to see it as providential and interpreted it as a sign from God that he should abandon militaristic solutions against Native Americans and instead use pacific means in dealing with them. Jacob Hamblin was later the leader of the Southern Indian Mission and he had a powerful influence on his fellow Indian missionaries, including his brother Oscar, Dudley Leavitt, Ira Hatch, Samuel Knight and many others.

In February, 1854, 21-year-old Oscar Hamblin married 18-year-old Mary Ann Corbridge (1836-1916), the daughter of James and Elizabeth Walmsley Corbridge. She and her family were natives of Lancashire, England. Following their conversion to the Mormon Church in the 1840s, they had immigrated to America to join the Mormons.

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A Reconstruction of Fort Clara, 1855-1862.

Indian Interpreter in the Southern Indian Mission

In fall 1855, the Hamblin and Corbridge families followed Jacob Hamblin to Fort Clara on the Santa Clara River in southwestern Utah. Shortly after arriving, Isaiah Hamblin, father to Oscar and Jacob, died. Soon, Jacob Hamblin became a leader of the Indian interpreters sent by Brigham Young to found the Southern Indian Mission and Oscar Hamblin served as one of the Indian interpreter.

To Fort Las Vegas

Later that year, Oscar Hamblin was among those sent to the Las Vegas valley in modern Nevada to found Las Vegas Fort there. In June 1857, back at Fort Clara in southern Utah, Oscar Hamblin and his wife attended Thales Haskell’s dying wife, Maria Woodbury Haskell, who had been shot accidentally by an Indian boy inside the fort.

In the Iron Military District: 2nd Lieutenant Oscar Hamblin, Company H, John D. Lee's 4th Battalion

In 1857, the Southern Indian Mission were headquartered at Fort Clara on the lower Santa Clara River near modern-day St. George, Utah. It was part of the Iron Military District which consisted of four battalions led by regimental commander Col. William H. Dame. The platoons and companies in the first battalion drew on men in and around Parowan. (It had no involvement at Mountain Meadows.) Major Isaac Haight commanded the 2nd Battalion whose personnel in its many platoons and two companies came from Cedar City and outer-lying communities to the north such as Fort Johnson. Major John Higbee headed the 3rd Battalion whose many platoons and two companies were drawn from Cedar City and outer-lying communities to the southwest such as Fort Hamilton. Major John D. Lee of Fort Harmony headed the 4th Battalion whose platoons and companies drew on its militia personnel from Fort Harmony, the Southerners at the newly-founded settlement in Washington, the Indian interpreters at Fort Clara, and the new settlers at Pinto.

In September 1857, 24-year-old Oscar Hamblin was a 2nd Lieutenant in one of the two platoons at Fort Clara attached to Company H in John D. Lee's 4th Battalion. Other Indian interpreters in Lee's geographically sprawling battalion were Samuel Knight, Dudley Leavitt, and Amos Thornton (Fort Clara), Carl Shirts (Fort Harmony), and David Tullis (Pinto).

On the evening of Monday, September 7, according to John D. Lee, Oscar Hamblin was among those from the southern settlements who Lee met some miles south of Mountain Meadows. They moved up to Mountain Meadows the following day. Militiaman William "Billy" Young from the southern settlement of Washington, also mentioned Hamblin among those he saw at Mountain Meadows. Following their arrival at the Meadows, Lee praised Hamblin for his skill in handling the Indians.

Hamblin is not mentioned among those attending the war council on the evening of Thursday, the 10th, but presumably he was present at the massacre on Friday, the 11th. However, Oscar's brother Jacob maintained that Oscar recruited Paiutes along the Santa Clara river, brought them to Mountain Meadows on Tuesday, the 8th, and then left. If he was present on the day of the final massacre, it seems likely that he acted as an interpreter in dealing with the Indians.

Oscar Hamblin was not among those listed in Judge John Cradlebaugh's 1859 arrest warrant. However, in the first trial of John D. Lee in 1875, witness William Young identified Hamblin as among those present at Mountain Meadows during the time of the siege. Lee and his attorney William Bishop also refer to him in Lee's posthumously-published autobiography, Mormonism Unveiled.

Immediate Aftermath of the Massacre

Having induced local Indians to join them in massacring the Arkansas company, the Iron County militia now found that they had lost control of them. Following behind the Arkansas train was the Dukes-Turner Company which fell under attack at Beaver. After arriving in Cedar City, Dukes and Turner hired Ira Hatch, Oscar Hamblin and Nephi Johnson to guide them through. Meanwhile, Jacob Hamblin sent Dudley Leavitt and Samuel Knight to conciliate the Paiutes in Nevada. When the Dukes-Turner Company arrived near the Muddy River in Nevada, the Paiutes drove off their cattle but otherwise did not molest them and the company made it safely through to southern California.

Later Years

Oscar Hamblin, his wife and their children remained in Santa Clara until 1862. In February 1862, the Great Flood on the Santa Clara River severely damaged Fort Clara and Oscar Hamblin and his family lost much of their property in the flood. Evidently, he was also suffering from "consumption," probably tuberculosis.

They moved to Minersville, Beaver County, for his health. However, Oscar Hamblin soon succumbed to his disease. Sometime in 1862, he died at the age of 29 and was buried there, survived by his wife and children. His wife survived him by more than 50 years.

References

Alder and Brooks, A History of Washington County, 22; Bradshaw, Under Dixie Sun: A History of Washington County, 31, 150; Carter, Our Pioneer Heritage, 3:459; Carter, Heart Throbs of the West, 6:430; Compton, A Frontier Life, 2, 20-24, 25, 28, 36-37, 77-78, 79, 103; Lee, Mormonism Unveiled, 228, 229, 379; Lee Trial transcripts; Larson, I Was Called to Dixie, 40; New.FamilySearch.org.; Robinson, They Answered the Call: A History of Minersville, Utah, 13, 232, Appendix 38-39 (Elizabeth Wamsley Corbridge (mother-in-law)) 39-40 (Mary Ann Corbridge (wife)), 40-42 (William Corbridge (father-in-law); Thrapp, Encyclopedia of Frontier Biography, 2:609; Walker, et al, Massacre at Mountain Meadows, Appendix C; Whittaker, ed., History of Santa Clara, Utah, 32, 89.

For full bibliographic information see Bibliography.

External Links

For further information on Oscar Hamblin, see:

• http://mountainmeadowsmassacre.org/appendices/appendix-c-the-militiamen

Further information and confirmation needed. Please contact editor@1857ironcountymilitia.com.