Anna Lillian (Lilly) Decker
Born: 13 November 1875, Parowan, Iron, Utah, USA
Parents: James Bean Decker and Anna Maria Mickelsen
Married: Joseph Henry Wood, 17 December 1902 at Salt Lake City, Salt Lake, Utah
Died: 18 July 1963 at Salt Lake City, Salt Lake, Utah
Life Sketch: Anna Lillian (Lilly) Decker
First of eleven children, Anna Lillian (Lilly or Lillie), was born in the home of James Bean and Anna Maria Mickelsen Decker, 13 November 1875, at Parowan, Iron County, Utah. Almost exactly two years later, another girl, Jennie (Nancy Genevieve), was born in October 1877. Parowan soon was the scene of wider excitement as a response to Indian raids from the southeast began to unfold. Rumors were that Elder Erastus Snow, the Mormon Apostle who headed the Church in southern Utah, and who had converted Lilly’s grandmother in Denmark, would be organizing an expedition to establish peace with the Navajo. Around the time of Lilly’s fourth birthday a conference was held at Parowan during which a number of Iron county families were "called" to settle the remote San Juan region of the territory; and others volunteered to go along. Among these were Lilly’s parents four uncles and their families, and Grandfather Decker. (One uncle, Peter Mickelsen/Mickelson, had married Jim Decker’s sister, Harriet. ) Lilly’s mother was seven-months pregnant when they responded to the call and joined the wagon expedition eastward toward the Colorado River. To Lilly, Jennie, and their eight cousins among the 140 children this was to be a grand adventure.
By Christmas the missionary party of 80 families had reached the rim of the Colorado and began hacking a road down to the river, with the camp divided between “Forty Mile” and "Fifty Mile Spring." The Deckers were at Fifty Mile Spring with the advance party. Here, on January 3, 1880 Anna gave birth to a baby girl in the harsh frontier weather. Since the expedition was over a hundred miles away from a doctor, they had to improvise. The couple’s wagon box was lifted off of the axel and placed on the ground, providing a crude shelter from the elements. James then packed snow around the outside of the wagon box to provide even more insulation. In this dismantled wagon, and without the aid of a midwife, Anna gave birth to their third child. They named her Lena Deseret to mark the fact that she had literally been born in the desert of Deseret.
A month after Anna gave birth, the company broke camp and continued on the trek. The passage down the Hole was steep and dangerous. Since the wagons were so prone to tipping, Anna was unable to ride in the wagon. Anna had to help her two oldest girls, while another settler, Jane Walton, carried baby Lena. Although the rest of the journey was trying, James, Anna and their children arrived at the San Juan River area in good health. After six months of travel, they reached Bluff on April 6, 1880.
Lilly grew up in Bluff while her parents' family grew to eleven children. Her father was elected the first sheriff there (an unpaid position), but did more fighting in his attempt to farm as the belligerent San Juan stole the land the Deckers and the other families of Bluff tried to irrigate. The Indian neighbors also became accustomed to snatching what they could from this isolated outpost. Jennie attended school, church services and participated in community social activities in the log meeting house. She watched as the log cabins were first placed together in the "fort," then dragged to family lots around the small town, and later as her family began construction of a stately home when Lilly was a young adult. She learned from her mother as she assisted in cooking and caring for the large family.
The Deckers and other young families in Bluff struggled to make a go of it in San Juan, by 1890 many had moved on to Colorado, New Mexico, or back to former homes in more established Utah communities. Jim Decker stayed in Bluff, one of the men who took up raising cattle and sheep. Jim also became the head of Bluff's Sunday School.
Other families were "called" to Bluff or otherwise moved in to replenish those who had moved on. Among those called was the family of Samuel and Josephine (Jody) Wood, including their two sons, Henry and Arthur, of similar age to Lilly and Jennie. These brothers, Henry and Arthur, were close throughout their lives. They were great teases and played many funny tricks, they thought, on members of the family and schoolmates.
As the children of the early Bluff families grew up, there were quite a few young people near the same age. Most evenings, a group would gather at one home or another. If there was music, they would dance; if not, they would play games and have refreshments. Henry Wood was fond of Lilly Decker and Arthur liked Jennie. Their affections were mutual. But before any could make serious plans for a future together, means had to be found to provide for a life together. By the time these young people were getting serious together, the prospects in Bluff were sparce. Their fathers had engaged in “freighting” goods, attempted farming, and Sam continued his carpenter trade while Jim focused on ranching.
Henry was the first of this Decker/Wood circle to seek a higher education than Bluff had to offer. He chose to go to Provo and Brigham Young University, but first he needed money for his tuition (his father’s second wife, Emma, had her home in Provo), and Henry found work making bricks in Moab. After a semester in Provo, war with Spain was brewing and Henry decided he would join a group in Salt Lake City who were enlisting in the fighting. This took him to Florida and then to Cuba before he returned home. He had deferred a mission call to serve in the military.
Meanwhile, Arthur was called on an LDS Mission to Kentucky, he couldn't bear the thought of leaving Jennie to be courted by the other young men, so they decided they should be married before he left for his mission. They drove to Salt Lake City and were married in the Salt Lake Temple on April 12, 1899. Arthur left for his mission the next day. In those days, it took two weeks by horse to drive to Salt Lake. So, Jennle's sister, Lilly went along as chaperone. Henry returned from Cuba suffering from malaria. No sooner was he recuperated than a letter from Salt Lake City came inquiring of his willingness to now serve the mission to which he had earlier been called. He hurriedly made his way to Moab and thence to Salt Lake City where he was called to the Central States, traveling to Chicago and then to Missouri. During his military and mission experiences he and Lilly corresponded.
In 1902, Henry returned home following a successful mission, to help console Lilly over the loss of her father and several siblings to diphtheria the previous winter. Henry and Arthur combined resources and entered the cattle ranching business, and on 17 December of 1902 Lilly and Henry were married in Salt Lake City. A reception was held on 2 January 1903 in Bluff and Henry and Lilly began their own home in the vacant old Decker cabin.
Henry was often away from home attending to necessary business interests — farming, cattle, and eventually carpentry. During the next 17 years, eight children (Joseph Earl, Francis Clair, Anna Bernice, Fern, Clark Marden, Merrill James, Josephine, and Mark Decker) would be born in Bluff and Monticello, and then their home would become Salt Lake City. During the Monticello years, Henry served as a bishop’s counselor, stake Young Men president, and bishop, also on the county commission and made an unsuccessful run for state senate. Under his leadership the San Juan County courthouse was built. Lilly served for a time as school superintendent. Lilly began suffering from stomach ulcers, from which she was healed through the faith of church associates and family; medical help had not been successful. In 1921 they sold their Monticello properties and moved to Salt Lake City where Henry had found carpentry work.
While in Salt Lake, Fern developed cancer of the eye, and died in 1925. Children began marrying and moving out of the home, and Henry’s work took him to Yellowstone, Grand Canyon, and Yosemite, before he settled into a job with the Deseret News (1934) in Salt Lake City. Henry died of pneumonia 1 July 1942; Lilly died 18 July 1963. Both are buried in Salt Lake City Cemetery.
Source:
Samuel Wood Family, December 1982. Joseph Henry Wood Chapter.
Right-click [Mac Control-click] to open full-size image:
Anna Lillian "Lillie" Decker
Joseph Henry Wood
Decker Log Cabin in Bluff
Bluff Meetinghouse and School
Family of James and Anna Decker, 1901, Lilly, back row, second from right
Midwifery class at Bluff, 1896, Lilly, front row, third from right