Jabez Durfee

Jabez Durfee, his personal and family background, and his involvement in the Mountain Meadows Massacre

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Jabez Durfee/Durfey

1828-1884

Biographical Sketch

Early Life: Moving Westward from Upstate New York

Jabez Durfee/Durfey (1828-1883) was born to Edmund Durfee and Lainey Pickle in Williamstown, Oswego County in upstate New York adjacent Lake Ontario. His father’s people were from Newport, Rhode Island; his mother’s were mostly German who settled in Montgomery County, New York.

Durfee’s family were early supporters of Joseph Smith and they moved to Kirtland, Ohio in the early 1830s. In common with many early Mormons he experienced the expulsions from western Missouri and, later, western Illinois. In the late 1840s, he was in Iowa Territory.

Immigration to Utah

in 1846 the Durfee family departed western Illinois and moved through the Iowa and Nebraska territories. They spent several years in the temporary Mormon settlements in western Iowa-eastern Nebraska Territory. By 1850, the Durfees had acquired the means necessary to equip and provision an outfit to make the trek west. The same year, Jabez Durfee married Celestia Curtis (other sources refer to her as Ursula Curtis). She was the daughter of Enos Curtis and Ruth Franklin and the sister of Ezra Houghton Curtis, all originally from Pennsylvania.

In the spring of that year, the Durfees joined the Benjamin Hawkins Company which departed for the trek west in early June from the outfitting post at Kanesville (present day Council Bluffs), Iowa. By then, the Durfee family consisted of Abram Durfee, 23, and his wife and children, and Jabez, 22, and Ursula (Celestia), 23.

The Mormon Trail

Because of the Gold Rush, it was a very heavy travel season on the overland trail that year. Cholera was also epidemic and there were deaths due to cholera. They passed the usual milestones on the trail: Fort Kearney, the South Fork of the Platte River, Chimney Rock, Fort Laramie, the Sweetwater River, Independence Rock, Devil's Gate, Green River, Fort Bridger, Bear River, and Weber River. After suffering the hardships of overland trail, they arrived in the valley of the Great Salt Lake in mid-September.

To Cedar City and the Ironworks

The Early Ironworks in Cedar City

The Durfees joined the new settlement in Cedar City in the Iron Mission. He engaged in farming and also contributed labor to the iron works storehouse. He owned lots in Cedar City. His brother-in-law, Ezra H. Curtis, was also a member of the new settlement.

The Cedar City land records for 1854 note that "Jabaz Deirfee" owned a lot in Plat A, the new (and temporary) location of the settlement. It was two homes removed from that of Samuel Pollock and seven removed from John M. Higbee's. He is not listed as an owner of record in Plat B, the new and final location of the settlement nearer the foothills and southeast of Plat A. Presumably, however, he had a lot and crude home in Plat B as well.

The Deseret Iron Company

In moving to Cedar City, Durfee was settling in an area dominated by the Deseret Iron Company, known more familiarly as the Ironworks. See Summary of Deseret Iron Company for a brief summary of its early development.

The Ironworks in 1857

In April 1857, the delivery of a new steam engine from Great Salt Lake City seemed to breathe new life for the Ironworks. Working from April to June they installed the steam engine and completed the new engine house. In the first week of July, they were ready to begin smelting. They “put on the blast” and had a modicum of success. But they continued to be plagued with problems ranging from poor quality raw materials to smelting equipment that lacked technical sophistication. When in late July the steam engine seized with sand from the dirty creek water, they speedily dug a reservoir to store a supply of clean water for the boiler. They continued making smelting runs through August. All the while crews at the ironworks manned all the necessary functions there, while other crews, mainly miners and teamsters, gathered the raw materials – iron ore, coal, limestone, and wood – necessary to sustain smelting.

The smelting continued until September 13. In other words, around September 3, when a dispute arose between some settlers and several men in the passing Arkansas company, the blast furnace was running nonstop. And when Cedar City militiamen, many of them ironworkers, mustered to Mountain Meadows where they were involved in the massacre on September 11, other ironworkers in Cedar City continued the smelting runs night and day. For additional details, see Smelting at the Ironworks in 1857.

From late April through July, those working up the canyon in mining or hauling wood, coal, limestone, rock, sand or “adobies” to the ironworks were Isaac C. Haight, James Williamson, George Hunter, Joseph H. Smith, Ira Allen, Ellott Wilden, Swen Jacobs, Alex Loveridge, Joel White, Ezra Curtis, Samuel McMurdie, Samuel Pollock, John Jacobs, John M. Higbee, John M. Macfarlane, Samuel Jewkes, Nephi Johnson, Thomas Cartwright, William Bateman, Elias Morris, Benjamin Arthur, Joseph H. Smith, Robert Wiley, and Philip Klingensmith. Those working at the ironworks on the furnace, engine, coke ovens or blacksmith shop included Elias Morris, John Humphries, Ira Allen, John Urie, Benjamin Arthur, James Williamson, Joseph H. Smith, Samuel Jewkes, Joseph Clews, Richard Harrison, William C. Stewart, William Bateman, John M Macfarlane, John M. Higbee, John Jacobs, George Hunter, Samuel Pollock, William S. Riggs, Alex Loveridge, Ellott Wilden, Ezra Curtis, Eliezar Edwards, Swen Jacobs, Joel White, and Thomas Cartwright. (The two lists overlap because some worked both in the canyon and at the Ironworks.) Other prominent figures at the ironworks who were not later involved at Mountain Meadows were Samuel Leigh, George Horton, James H. Haslem, Laban Morrell, John Chatterley, Thomas Gower, Thomas Crowther and others.

Durfee's Limited Role at the Ironworks

Durfee was credited in 1856 with providing labor and material (roof shingles) to the roof of the Ironworks's storehouse. In 1857, however, there is no evidence in the Deseret Iron Company's ledger that Durfey performed any work for the operations of the Ironworks. Perhaps in that period he was engaged in farming or livestock raising, two other vitally important activities for the settlement.

Iron Military District: Private Jabez Durfee, Company E, Isaac Haight's 2nd Battalion

In 1857, the Iron Military District consisted of four battalions led by regimental commander Col. William H. Dame. The platoons and companies in the first battalion drew on men in and around Parowan. (It had no involvement at Mountain Meadows.) Major Isaac Haight commanded the 2nd Battalion whose personnel in its many platoons and two companies came from Cedar City and outer-lying communities to the north such as Fort Johnson. Major John Higbee headed the 3rd Battalion whose many platoons and two companies were drawn from Cedar City and outer-lying communities to the southwest such as Fort Hamilton. Major John D. Lee of Fort Harmony headed the 4th Battalion whose platoons and companies drew on its militia personnel from Fort Harmony, the Southerners at the newly-founded settlement in Washington, the Indian interpreters at Fort Clara, and the new settlers at Pinto.

In September 1857, Durfee, 29, was a private in the First Platoon in Company E. The platoon officers were 2nd Lieutenant Ezra Curtis (his brother-in-law) and Sergeant Samuel Pollock. Their platoon was attached to Company E under Captain Elias Morris. E Company was one of two companies in Major Isaac C. Haight's 2nd Battalion. See A Basic Account for a full description of the massacre.

Early that month, Durfee was summoned to join a detachment bound for Mountain Meadows. According to John D. Lee, Durfee was in the military council on Thursday, September 10.

At the time of the massacre on Friday, September 11, it is probable that Durfee was among the Cedar City guard unit who marched alongside the emigrant men as they tramped northward from their wagon circle. As the massacre commenced, the duty of the guards was to wheel and fire on the emigrant men, quickly dispatching them. Yet during the actual massacre, reactions varied among the guards. Some shrank from their duty, others fired over the heads of their victims, while others still undertook their bloody duty with zeal. Within minutes, members of the Cedar City unit had killed all but three of the emigrant men. However, whether Durfee was in this guard unit and if so, how he acted during the massacre will probably never be known with any certainty.

Relocating to Aurora in Sevier County

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Map of Sevier County, Utah.

In the 1875, Durfee's brother-in law Ezra Curtis founded Willow Bend (now Aurora), Sevier County, on the northern end of what is now state highway 89. Soon, Jabez Durfee and his family followed the Curtises to Willow Bend. Durfee worked as a farmer, fruit grower, carpenter and handyman. He is credited with devising a better design for their farm implements that improved their furrowing in the early years.

Jabez and Celestia Curtis Durfee eventually had ten children, seven of whom survived to adulthood and married.

Final Years

In 1881, Durfee was appointed the first Mormon bishop of Willow Bend (Aurora) and served there until 1883. He died in 1884 at the age of fifty-six. He was survived by his wife, Celestia Curtis Durfee, and their children.

References

Bishop, A History of Sevier County, 86; Esshom, Pioneers and Prominent Men of Utah, 851; Lee, Mormonism Unveiled, 232, 379; Lee Trial transcripts; Murphy, A History of Wayne County, 129, 236; New.FamilySearch.org; Shirts and Shirts, A Trial Furnace, 331, 354, 495; Walker, et al, Massacre at Mountain Meadows, Appendix C, 257; Warnock, Thru the Years: A Centennial History of Sevier County, 109, 112 (photo), 119-20; Warnock & Warnock, Sevier Stake Memories, 22, 415.

For full bibliographic information see Bibliography.

External Links

For additional information on Jabez Durfee, see:

• http://mountainmeadowsmassacre.org/appendices/appendix-c-the-militiamen
• Deseret Iron Company Account Book, 1854-1867: http://www.footnote.com/document/241905844/

Further information and confirmation needed. Please comment below or contact editor@1857ironcountymilitia.com.