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Rufus Blodgett

American politician (1834-1910)

Correspondence, annotated notebooks and portrait silhouettes prepared for research
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Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionJul 18, 2026
Entity authorityQ5579260 ↗
Source-derived summary

Rufus Blodgett (October 9, 1834 – October 3, 1910) was a United States senator from New Jersey and Superintendent of the New York & Long Branch Railroad for 25 years. He served as the Mayor of Long Branch, New Jersey on five occasions.

He was the only person in either house of Congress to vote against the Sherman Antitrust Act.

References

External links

United States Congress. "Rufus Blodgett (id: B000562)". Biographical Directory of the United States Congress.

Editorial summary

Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Rufus Blodgett” is american politician (1834-1910). The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Rufus, Blodgett 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—1834, 1910—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1834-10-09. For this dossier, Rufus, Blodgett and American is the immediate research focus.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The phrase “american politician (1834-1910)” 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

Chronology provides the most reliable spine for this subject; interpretation should follow only after identities and dates are secure. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 18, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q5579260. VIAF identifies the subject as 11943260. The Library of Congress control number is no99062000. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1834 and 1910.

Critical limits

A concise life account rarely captures disputed attribution, private networks or the changing language used to describe a career. 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 “Rufus Blodgett”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Rufus Blodgett primary sources, Rufus Blodgett archive and Rufus 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 “Rufus Blodgett”?
  2. Which claims depend on a single source or contested interpretation?
  3. Which primary records establish identity, chronology and institutional ties?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Rufus Blodgett” 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.