Edmund Durfee

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.

Death

After losing their home to the arsonists, the Durfees, with other homeless residents, fled to Nauvoo for safety. Edmund and other men returned to Morley's Settlement to harvest their crops on November 15, 1845. They lodged with Solomon Hancock in his unburned home about one-half mile northeast of Lima, Illinois. Late that evening, nightriders set fire to hay in the Hancock barnyard. Awakened, the Mormon men rushed outside to fight the fire. Edmund Durfee, who was age 57 at the time, was shot in the back and killed. Durfee's attackers were identified and arrested, but never brought to trial, even though "their guilt was sufficiently apparent," according to Illinois Governor Thomas Ford. Edmund was buried near his brother, James Durfee, in Nauvoo's Parley Street Cemetery. "Some of the mob engaged in the tragic affair afterwards boasted that they had shot Durfee in order to win a wager of a gallon of whisky, that the stack had been set on fire to cause an alarm and draw the men out, and that by killing him they had won the whisky."

Following his murder, Edmund's family participated in the Latter-day Saints' forced exodus from Nauvoo in 1846. Edmund's widow, Magdalena, died during the hard journey near present-day Council Bluffs. His daughter, Tamma Durfee Miner, buried both her baby, Melissa, at Montrose, and her husband Albert Miner, in Iowaville, along the Mormon Trail. Eight Durfee children – Martha Durfee Stevens, Tamma Durfee Miner Curtis, Dolly Durfee Garner, Delana Durfee Dudley, Abraham Durfee, Jabez Durfee, Mary Durfee Carter, and Nephi Durfee – went west with the Latter-day Saints and settled in Utah Territory.