Jabez Durfee
Jabez Durfee, his personal and family background, and his involvement in the Mountain Meadows Massacre
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
He immigrated to Utah in 1850. The same year, he married Celestia Curtis in Great Salt Lake City. She was the daughter of Enos Curtis and Ruth Franklin of Pennsylvania. 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.
Iron Military District: Private Jabez Durfee, Company E, Isaac Haight's 2nd Battalion
In September 1857, Durfee, 29, was a private in the First Platoon in Company E. The platoon officers were 2nd Lieutenant Ezra Curtis and Sergeant Samuel Pollock. Curtis was his brother-in-law. 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.
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 he was among the Cedar City detachment that marched alongside the emigrant men as they marched northward from their wagon circle. However, there are no accounts that identify his actions.
Later Life
Jabez and Celestia Durfee eventually had ten children, seven of whom survived to adulthood and married. In the 1875, his 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.
In 1881, Durfee was appointed the first bishop of Willow Bend 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; FamilySearch.org; Esshom, Pioneers and Prominent Men of Utah, 851; Lee, Mormonism Unveiled, 232, 379; Lee Trial transcripts; Murphy, A History of Wayne County, 129, 236; 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.
External Links
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