In the spring of 1877, Hamblin journeyed again into Arizona by the Lee's Ferry route to the Hopi towns, trying to find an escaping criminal. On this trip, the Hopi implored him to pray for rain, as their crops were dying. Possibly through his appeal to grace, rain fell very soon thereafter, assuring the Indians a crop of corn, squashes and beans. There was little rain elsewhere. When Hamblin returned to his own home, he found his crops burned from drought.
The estimation in which the Indians held the old scout may have indication in a story told lately in the Historian's office by Jacob Hamblin Jr. It follows:
"One day my father sent me to trade a horse with an old Navajo Indian chief. I was a little fellow and I went on horseback, leading the horse to be traded. The old chief came out and lifted me down from my horse. I told him my father wanted me to trade the horse for some blankets. He brought out a number of handsome blankets, but, as my father had told me to be sure and make a good trade, I shook my head and said I would have to have more. He then brought out two buffalo robes and quite a number of other blankets and finally, when I thought I had done very well, I took the roll on my horse, and started for home. When I gave the blankets to my father, he unrolled them, looked at them, and then began to separate them. He put blanket after blanket into a roll and then did them up and told me to get on my horse and take them back and tell the chief he had sent me too many. When I got back, the old chief took them and smiled. He said, 'I knew you would come back; I knew Jacob would not keep so many; you know Jacob is our father, as well as your father.'"
In 1878 Hamblin moved to Arizona and was made a counselor to President
Lot Smith. He was appointed in 1879 to preside over the Saints in Round
Valley, the present Springerville, living at Fort Milligan, about one
mile west of the present Eagar.
He died of malarial fever, August 31, 1886, at Pleasanton, in Williams
Valley, New Mexico, where a settlement of Saints had been made in
October, 1882.
Hamblin's remains were removed from Pleasanton before 1889, to Alpine, Arizona, where was erected a shaft bearing this very appropriate inscription:
"In memory of
JACOB V. HAMBLIN,
Born April 2, 1819,
Died August 31, 1886.
Peacemaker in the Camp of the Lamanites."
Chapter Nine
Crossing the Mighty Colorado
Early Use of "El Vado de Los Padres"