Pardon Durfee, son of Gideon Durfee and Anne Bowen, was born on January 24, 1770 in Tiverton, Newport County, Rhode Island. Pardon’s daughter, Cynthia Durfee, married Thomas Lakey. Pardon married Ruth Reeves in May 1794 in Palmyra.
In the spring of 1792, Pardon drove cattle belonging to the Durfee family from Rhode Island to Palmyra. He asked his brothers to bring him food. “We have none,” was their reply. Pardon first purchased land in Rochester, but when attacked by fever he determined to settle in Palmyra. He brought seeds to plant plus pear and other fruit trees with him to Palmyra.
In 1795, Pardon was on a jury list in Ontario County in the town of Canandaigua.[1] On April 20, 1796, Pardon was “licensed to keep a public inn or tavern in the town of Tolland the ensuing year for which the said Durfee has paid to the commissioners . . . five dollars.” Two years later, Pardon was granted a deed from Timothy Smith.[2]
Between 1799 and 1821, Pardon served the community of Palmyra as a commissioner/overseer of highways (1799, 1802, 1803-1804, 1806, 1812, 1818-1819, 1821), supervisor (1809-1814), pound master (1807), school commissioner (1798, 1818), and justice of the peace (1806-1808).[3] Pardon was on a jury list in Palmyra in 1803, 1809 and 1811.[4] In 1810, Pardon was granted a deed by John Hornby.[5] That same year, he was listed in the US Federal Census of Ontario County, New York, and the April 4, 1810 issue of the Geneva Gazette as a justice of the peace in Ontario County.
Pardon was a lieutenant and then captain in Captain Culver’s Company in the War of 1812.[6] In 1814, Pardon was granted a deed from Ernest Augustus and John Swift.[7] Two years later in 1816, Pardon was granted two deeds from Edward Durfee.[8] Pardon granted a deed to Lemuel Durfee Sr. in 1817.[9]
Pardon granted a deed to Elias Durfee in 1821.[10] The following year, he was granted a deed from Sir John Johnstone. He then granted deeds to Cynthia Lakey and Thomas Lakey.[11] Pardon ran a rope walk.
On April 25, 1828, Pardon died at age fifty.[12] He was buried in the Durfee Cemetery in Palmyra.
[1] 19th Century Jury List Ontario County to 1855.
[2] Ontario County, NY Grantee Deed Index, 1789–1845.
[3] Old Palmyra Town Records.
[4] 19th Century Jury List Ontario County to 1855.
[5] Ontario County, NY Grantee Deed Index, 1789–1845.
[6] Clark, Military History of Wayne County, p. 33.
[7] Ontario County, NY Grantee Deed Index, 1789–1845.
[8] Ontario County, NY Grantee Deed Index, 1789–1845.
[9] Ontario County, NY Grantee Deed Index, 1789–1845.
[10] Ontario County, NY Grantee Deed Index, 1789–1845.
[11] Ontario County, NY Grantee Deed Index, 1789–1845.
[12] Wayne Sentinel, May 23, 1828.