Magdalena's surname is recorded as Bickel on many early documents, but she is later primarily referred to as a daughter of Magdalena Salzmann and Johannes Pickle Jr.

Her family was from Stone Arabia, Mongomery, New York and she was recorded as the seventh in a family of 14 known children.

She married 18 October 1809, at Tiverton, Newport, Rhode Island, to Edmund/Edmond Durfee. His name has also been recorded as Edmund James Durfee, Sr.

They had 14 known children before his death in November 1845.

She married two months later, 21 January 1846 in Nauvoo, to his younger brother, Jabez Durfee. Because of the forced exodus of Latter-day Saint Church members from Nauvoo, they fled to the Council Bluffs area located in what is now Pottawattamie County, Iowa.

They were actually located at Carterville Settlement when Magdalena died and she was buried there in Carterville Cemetery.

In modern times, a monument was erected by descendants at the Old Nauvoo Burial Grounds, but her name on the stone of her first husband is a Cenotaph Memorial; she is not buried there.

There were more than 300 burials at Carterville
Documented Carterville Burials:
Name: Death Date

Baum, Agnes Nancy Harris 11 Sep 1846
Carter, Hannah Cordelia Mecham 3 Apr 1847
Carter, Baby 26 Aug 1847
Carter, Isaac Morley 1851
Carter, Sophronia Babcock 6 Aug 1847
Carter, Wilford W. 23 Apr 1849
Casto, Matthew W 27 Mar 1848
Durfee, Magdalena Pickle 17 May 1850
Durham, LaCrecia (Tempey) 13 Feb 1849
Hennefer, Charlotte 1850
Kelley, Lydia 6 Apr 1848
Kelley, Matilda Hull 20 Dec 1848
Tracy, James Thomas 20 Jun 1850
Wilson, James Perry 24 Sep 1852
Wilson, Nancy Ann Waggoner 18 Jul 1851


Cenotaph here