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William DeFord

American politician (1807–1898)

Correspondence, annotated notebooks and portrait silhouettes prepared for research
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Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionJul 24, 2026
Entity authorityQ122945942
Source-derived summary

William DeFord (April 28, 1807 – February 24, 1898) was an American politician who served as a member of the Ohio House of Representatives, representing Carroll County from 1864 to 1868.

Early life

William DeFord was born on April 28, 1807, in Monroe, Fayette County, Pennsylvania, to Nancy (née Hopwood) and John DeFord. His father was a farmer and owned a hotel in Monroe (previously named Hopwood). His maternal grandfather John Hopwood was the town namesake and was a Baptist who founded churches throughout Fayette County. DeFord studied in common schools and attended Madison College in Pennsylvania for a few months. In 1822, he visited some friends in Wooster, Ohio. As a young man, he helped construct the National Road near Laurel Hill. He also met General Marquis de Lafayette during his return to the United States.

Career

In 1835, DeFord moved to a farm in Washington Township, Carroll County, Ohio.

Prior to the Civil War, DeFord was a Democrat.

Editorial summary

Begin with the source’s own compact description: “William DeFord” is american politician (1807–1898). The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through William, DeFord 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—1807, 1898, 1864, 1868—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1807-04-28. For this dossier, William, DeFord and American is the immediate research focus.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The phrase “american politician (1807–1898)” 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 24, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q122945942. None of the 1 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1807, 1898, 1864 and 1868.

Critical limits

Later biographies can compress uncertainty and repeat inherited reputations, so apparently settled claims may still require comparison. 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 “William DeFord”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow William DeFord primary sources, William DeFord archive and William 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 “William DeFord”?
  2. How has the subject’s reputation changed across later accounts?
  3. Which primary records establish identity, chronology and institutional ties?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from William DeFord” 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.