August 15, 2025
Introduction: In this article, Melissa Davenport Berry writes about Jacob Hamblin, a Mormon pioneer known as the “Buckskin Apostle,” with possible Wampanoag and Mayflower family lines, especially focusing on his fifth wife, Louisa Bonelli. Melissa is a genealogist who has a website, americana-archives.com, and a Facebook group, New England Family Genealogy and History.
Today I continue my series on Jacob Vernon Hamblin (1819–1886), aka the “Buckskin Apostle,” who was a Western pioneer, LDS Church missionary, and diplomat to Native American tribes. He played a key role in settling southern Utah and northern Arizona and was known as an effective intermediary between settlers and native populations. Jacob may be connected to both Wampanoag and Mayflower family lines (see Part 1).
To recap: In Part One I covered some background on Jacob’s missionary work with the Shivwits Band of Paiute Indians, as well as his lineage. Jacob had plural marriages and left many descendants.
In addition, I introduced an article entitled, “Portrait of a True Pioneer,” featured in a Nevada newspaper in 1969.
Today I will continue the narrative from this article that provides details of the pioneer life of Jacob and his 5th wife Louisa Bonelli (1843-1931), with whom he had six children.
This article reports:
Louisa Bonelli became the [fifth] wife of Jacob Hamblin, the great “buckskin apostle” at Salt Lake City, Utah, on November 16, 1865. She was 22 years old and the envy of every girl in southern Nevada and Utah.
Most especially was she envied by her friends in Santa Clara, where Louisa had become betrothed to Hamblin. Many of these young ladies would be going to settle the area known as “The Muddy” at West Point, St. Joseph and St. Thomas [southwest Nevada].
Louisa’s brother Daniel Bonelli [1836-1903], who was to become a great pioneer in southern Nevada, also was to leave at this time for “The Muddy.” [One of the founders of the Colorado Ferries, Daniel married Ann Haigh and left many descendants.]
Later Louisa visited him frequently, both in St. Thomas and at Bonelli’s Ferry at Rioville.
Here is a photo of Daniel with his wife and daughter at the old ranch at Bonelli’s Ferry, now under 450 feet of water in Lake Mead. In this photo we see (left to right): Moapa Tom; Wion (Indian ranch hand); Joe F. Perkins (foreman of the Bonelli Ranch); Indian boy (unknown); Alice Bonelli (Daniel’s daughter); Frank Rossitor (prospector); Ann Bonelli (Daniel’s wife); and Daniel Bonelli.
But now, although concerned for her brother going off to settle largely unknown country, she was a very busy young lady. Jacob Hamblin, 46 years of age and thrice* married with one wife still living, was yet considered the best prospect in the territory. He was a handsome, brilliant man with a dynamic and pleasing personality. He was a man of some substance, and he was very famous throughout the West.
[*Note: Jacob had a fourth wife before Louisia. Her name was Eliza, a member of the Shivwits Band of Paiute Indians. She had one daughter with Jacob, Clara Melvina Hamblin. The marriage dissolved quickly.]
Life with Jacob Hamblin was not to be an easy one for Louisa Bonelli, although it was to be a life of great depth and satisfaction. She was to know much loneliness and hardship, but there was never any question in her mind that she had chosen the right way of life.
Louisa Bonelli had come to America from Switzerland [with her family] in 1857. She was 13 years old. The family had sold their home and all their possessions to get to America and had landed at Norfolk, Virginia.
They [along with other Mormons, walked with hand carts] the long trip overland to Salt Lake City… A resolute and hardy family, they walked with pride. Young Louisa not only walked the entire distance, but carried on her back much of the way a little crippled [girl].
In later years Louisa would tell her children how on this journey she and the other children would run ahead of the wagons and carts and collect buffalo chips in their aprons. These they would use for the campfire on which they cooked their supper.
Louisa’s shoes were wooden and would often impede her by sticking in the mud and sand.
This group photo is in the Hamblin family collection and is labeled “Old Folks Home.” Louisa is in the front row, third from the left. She died on 11 December 1931 in Thatcher, Graham, Arizona.
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Note on the header image: an ambrotype of Jacob Hamblin recently discovered in the private collection of Ipson Dodd. It was first shared at the 2019 Jacob Hamblin Family Reunion in St. George, Utah, hosted by the Jacob Hamblin Legacy Organization. Photo credit: Jacob Allred.
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