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Edmund Durfee

Latter-Day Saint martyr (1788-1845)

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General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionApr 16, 2025
Entity authorityQ5339431
Source-derived summary

Edmund Durfee (Durfy) Sr. (October 3, 1788 – November 15, 1845) was an American settler and early member of the Latter Day Saint movement who is remembered as a martyr by Latter-day Saints.

Biography

Born in Tiverton, Rhode Island, Durfee was a farmer, carpenter, and millwright. He married Magdalena Pickle, and they later became the parents of thirteen children. The Durfees joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in the 1830s in Ohio. After being driven as religious refugees from Mormon settlements in Ohio and Missouri (see Missouri Executive Order 44), they moved to Morley's Settlement in Hancock County, Illinois, about 25 miles due south of Nauvoo, Illinois.

In September 1845, a mob of anti-Mormon arsonists rushed upon Morley's Settlement. They burned down the Durfee home and, shortly thereafter, burned down the homes of dozens of other Mormon families. The morning following, Solomon Hancock sent word of the burnings to President Brigham Young in Nauvoo:

"Dear Brother,

I will agreeably to your request send you some of the particulars of what has been done. On the other side of the branch, it is a scene of desolation.

Editorial summary

Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Edmund Durfee” is latter-Day Saint martyr (1788-1845). The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Edmund, Durfee and Latter-Day, not as a finished interpretation.

Editorial reviewA practical starting point whose main value is the path it opens into stronger specialist and primary sources. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1788, 1845—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1788-10-03. For this dossier, Edmund, Durfee and Latter-Day is the immediate research focus.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The phrase “latter-Day Saint martyr (1788-1845)” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.

Evidence profile

Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Apr 16, 2025. The linked authority identifier is Q5339431. VIAF identifies the subject as 305857234. The Library of Congress control number is no2013137378. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1788 and 1845.

Critical limits

Overview language is designed for orientation and should not be treated as a substitute for the evidence cited beneath it. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

Best used for
  • Subject orientation
  • Search vocabulary
  • Locating named sources
Verify next

The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Edmund Durfee”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Edmund Durfee primary sources, Edmund Durfee archive and Edmund research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Edmund Durfee”?
  2. Which institution is responsible for the underlying evidence?
  3. Which cited source is closest to the event, object or claim?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from Edmund Durfee” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.