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Norman L. Benefiel

American politician and excavating contractor

Correspondence, annotated notebooks and portrait silhouettes prepared for research
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Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionJul 23, 2026
Entity authorityQ33081984 ↗
Source-derived summary

Norman L. "Dutch" Benefiel (August 31, 1924 – April 12, 2009) was an American politician and excavating contractor.

Born in Newton, Illinois, Benefiel went to the Newton Public Schools. He served in the United States Army during World War II. Benefiel worked as an excavating contractor and lived in Newton, Illinois. He was involved with the Democratic Party. Benefiel served in the Illinois House of Representatives in 1961 and 1962. He died at Richland Memorial Hospital in Olney, Illinois.

Editorial summary

Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Norman L. Benefiel” is american politician and excavating contractor. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Norman, Benefiel and American, not as a finished interpretation.

Editorial reviewStrongest as a route into the people, institutions and dated events that shaped the subject’s public record. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1924, 2009, 1961, 1962—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1924-08-31. For this dossier, Norman, Benefiel and American is the immediate research focus.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The phrase “american politician and excavating contractor” 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

Biographical claims are most persuasive when dates, appointments and relationships can be traced to records created close to the events described. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 23, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q33081984. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1924, 2009, 1961 and 1962.

Critical limits

Public reputation and documentary evidence do not always develop together; absence from a summary is not evidence of historical absence. 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

Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.

Best used for
  • Establishing names and roles
  • Building a first chronology
  • Locating cited institutions
Verify next

Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Norman L. Benefiel”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Norman L. Benefiel primary sources, Norman L. Benefiel archive and Norman 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 “Norman L. Benefiel”?
  2. Which primary records establish identity, chronology and institutional ties?
  3. How has the subject’s reputation changed across later accounts?
Subject index

Search terms from this dossier

Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Norman L. Benefiel” 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.