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Louis A & Mae Hatch Decker, 1897
Louis Addison Decker, 1910
Louis Addison Decker
Born: 27 October 1873 at Parowan, Iron, Utah Territory, USABIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF LOUIS ADDISON DECKER
Louis Addison Decker was born of “goodly parents,” Zachariah Bruyn, Jr. and Emma Seraphine Smith Decker, on October 27 1873 in Parowan, Iron County, Utah. He was the third child and second son of his family.
Louis got his name from one of his French ancestors, Louis Du Bois, a Hugenot who escaped the Catholic persecutions of the Inquisition by fleeing France dressed as a woman. He and many others found refuge in Holland and from there they came to America. He and seven other Hugenots were the patentees of New Paltz, Ulster County, New York.
His grandparents Zechariah Bruyn & Nancy Bean Decker Sr. lived on the west side of the public square in Parowan and Jesse N. and Emma Seraphine West Smith lived on the south side. His parents’ home was the next to the last street on the west side of town. 1
On his 6th birthday his family joined the wagon train going to settle the San Juan country. This company became known as the Hole-In-the-Rock company. The sand and difficult terrain made going rough and resulted in rationing their limited supplies. It took five months to blast a precarious “slide” down to the Colorado River where a flatboat had been built to ferry them across. Climbing out on the other side of the river was almost as difficult as going into the canyon.
“Father went down that slide with his six horses and two wagons combined. He got a mule in the stretchers and the mule was thrown under the tongue of the wagon. Everything else stayed right side up. The poor old mule could not work any more and would not lead, so I had the job of keeping him with the outfit. He was too bony (and skinned) to ride side-stride and to walk and drive him was not safe, so with some kind of persuasion [Louis, who was slight and small for his age,] rode him standing up.”
“When we got to Bluff there was not land enough in the valley for each family to have 15 acres, so Father and the Smith brothers went on up the river to where the Montezuma empties into the San Juan. There we stayed until the last of June of 1881. .. “
While at the San Juan River, Louis was almost drowned. Like many six year olds, he was daring but lacked good sense. He ran out onto an obviously dangerous rock that was slippery with moss and damp with flood waters and slipped into the river. His brother ran screaming for help. Fortunately his uncle Silas D. (another record says cousin Steven) Smith was near and came hurriedly to the rescue of the drowning boy. Louis was so nearly dead that the rescuers had to work for a long time to revive him.
When His grandfather Jesse N. Smith was called to settle northeastern Arizona, Louis’ family left San Juan and moved to the Snowflake area, where he basically spent the rest of his life. His parents made their home in Taylor, 3 miles south of Snowflake but ran sheep west of town.
Louis was baptized and confirmed a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints 9 December, 1881 by his grandfather Jesse N. Smith.
He was of a small build but was very active and loved to run, jump and wrestle with the boys. Grandpa Jesse N. even allowed him and his cousin Rob to wrestle on Aunt Augusta’s new living room rag carpet the very day it was laid—when the straw that lined it was fresh and high. Aunt Augusta remonstrated, but Grandpa said, “O, let the boys play. There’s no furniture they can spoil. We’ll all sit round and watch.” What fun! 3 Who won? That depended on who was telling the story…
In those pioneer days chances for schooling were very limited. Therefore Louis received little formal education, though his mother instilled a love of reading., particularly the scriptures.
In 1884 his father acquired a band of sheep from William J. Flake. Although even small for a ten year old, Louis became a steady shepherd of this flock. It was during this period of his life that he attained or had instilled into him many of the qualities so characteristic of his later life, especially the attribute of courage. He necessarily had to be brave because the Indians were still on the warpath, cattle barons were trying to drive individual sheep owners from the range and the woods were infested with wild animals. At times Louis was twenty the thirty miles from home, often alone.
He recounts: “the sheep were all kinds, strong and weak, old and even lambs. I was not feeling well but had to run in the lead of them and try to hold them up, and they would streak off another way. I would run and stop and cough and get my wind between times but had them pretty well checked when Father got there with the wagon that night. Three of four inches of wet snow fell and I had a fever. Father told me to keep well covered until day light and then he found me broken out with measles. He turned the sheep loose and took me to town to give the measles to the rest of the family. After the measles episode, I herded sheep nearly all the remainder of that year. Father was sick and Nathaniel and I were left alone with the sheep.”4
While away from home, he started a daily journal. From this journal:
“I commence my journal June 24, 1884. My elder brother (Z.N., often called Nathaniel) and I are herding the sheep. I was 10 years old last October. I read 9 pages in the Book of Mormon today.”
“We got up quite a while before sun up. I milked the cow and we ate our breakfast and took the sheep out. I read 9 pages in the Book of Mormon. It was stormy all day. I lost my knife.”
“July 4. The bell rang in Taylor at 9:00 for the people to come to the public square. A procession was formed and we all marched through town. It was a very enjoyable day.”
“July 5. We went down to the field and pulled weeds”
“July 6. We went to Sunday School and then we went to meeting.”
“July 20. The cow got into our tent and mashed everything.”
“July 22. We are out of food. I ate some wild berries and they made me sick.”
“July 23 .Pa and Ma came up with food.” (finding the camp in disarray and the boys out of sight, his parents were very concerned until his mother found this diary under his pillow and knew the boys were O.K.)
“July 24. We got up early in the morning. I said my prayer and milked the cow. I helped my brother sharpen the ax, then we cut 20 poles. Two Indians came to our camp. One had a fan.”
“A man came today and wanted some food. He stayed all night.”
“2 stray dogs came.”
“We saw five wolves. Z.N. shot four times at them. He broke one’s leg.”
“Pa brought the family to live out here a while” (His father had built a cabin on land he had purchased to run the sheep.)
“We found a lamb we had lost.”
“We saw two deer. My brother shot at one”
“Brother Flake sent for four sheep. Pa and Constance went down with them and will stay for conference. We husked the corn while they were gone.”
“I and Jesse and Constance (younger brother and sister) herded sheep.”
Nearly every day is prefaced with, “I read the Book of Mormon or Bible.” 5
Sept 14. I and Inez (8 year old sister) herded the sheep and we saw six Indians.” Of this event, Constance wrote the story published in the Juvenile Instructor Vol. 37. P. 183-4 1902.
Their mother had packed a pail of lunch consisting of biscuits and home-made cheese, and the children went out to herd the flock. For some time they sat in the shade reading and tending their herd. When they were about ready to eat the lunch, they heard the cry which every pioneer feared and dreaded—Apache Indians whooping. Louis, just eleven years old tried to hide his sister but he was too late. The Indians rode up to them whooping and yelling. Louis, to protect himself, always wore an old pistol which was so large for the little boy that he had difficulty carrying it. But he bravely strode forward to meet the Indians.
The Indians drew reign and demanded, “pan” (food). Taking the lunch pail from his sister, Louis passed the biscuits around. Delighted with the pistol the Indian chief swiftly attempted to confiscate it. Angrily Louis put his finger on the trigger and commanded, “Let go, or I’ll shoot.” Insistently the Indian pulled on the gun, but something in Louis’s eyes and in the determined way he did not let go of the gun, made the Indian halt. He was determined to get something, and demanded a sheep. Louis said, “My father said you cannot have any of our sheep.” The Indians did not press him, but went on their way whooping and yelling. In his encounters with the Indians, he found that courage inevitably wins respect, while meekness more often encourages impertinence.6
One night Louis was left alone with the sheep. His father had gone to Snowflake, 25 miles away. Louis was sitting near his fire when he heard a voice calling. Thinking that his father was returning, he answered repeatedly. The voice continued and suddenly Louis realized that his camp was encircled by panthers. Frightened and trembling, he crawled into his tent, after having first rekindled the fire.
During the night he woke to replenish his fire and heard the sheep stirring and their bells ringing quite loudly. Buckling his gun around his waist, he bravely walked down to the bedded sheep. Just as he came onto the herd, a streak of lightning revealed a large panther killing one of their tiny lambs. Instantly the panther left his kill, having seen the boy. It fiercely sprang at him, but Louis was prepared. A moment later, the panther lay stretched upon the ground and he, a small 11 year old boy stood there alone, but unharmed.7
During the time when the Aztec Cattle Company was pressing all small owners from the range, they tried repeatedly to drive Z. B. Decker and his sons from their properties. They failed. Both the man and the boys steadfastly maintained that “it’s a free country”. Into these ruthless men a feeling akin to fear sprang up. They were known to say, “All those Decker boys need is a sack of flour, a book and a gun.”8
In 1887, while Nathaniel and he were sheep-herding, the family was struck with diphtheria. Four of the children, Inez (11), Jesse (8), Clarinda (2) and Curtis (6 months) died within a week. Only the two older boys (warned to not come home) and Constance survived. In 1889 James Alvin was born.
“I was very small when I was 16 years old. My sister Constance and I stood at the same notch and each weighed 96 pounds.” 9 As an adult he finally grew to about 5’ 7” but kept his slender build all his life.
Louis loved the out-of–doors. He loved the good earth and the water. He loved to go out in a storm. It never rained hard enough to bring him into the house. The Arizona “gully-washers” kept him busy guiding the water over his land. He loved to watch the washes run muddy, high and wild.10
On New Years’ Day 1890 we had a total eclipse of the sun. When the sun came up that morning, the moon stood squarely between the sun and the earth. We all celebrated the day in Taylor.11
In 1892 Nathaniel went to Provo to school and I was left with the responsibility of the ranch and stock. One day I rode out to the sheep herd in my new high heeled boots and found the herder perfectly snowblind. I had to give him my horse and let him go and I was left for three weeks with the herd alone in those boots. They wore welts on both sides of my ankles until it was almost unbearable… I had to herd the sheep and lamb them out almost alone.”12
At an MIA conference he sang a song. His voice was in the process of changing. He pitched the song too high and made a very difficult number out of it. Many of the young folks laughed. One young girl got very tickled about this, Achsah Mae Hatch. She laughed at the very embarrassed Louis until Sister DeWitt spoke to her seriously. “Achsah, you’d better not laugh so hard. You’ll marry that young fellow some day.”
Achsah did not laugh more, but she vividly remembered this occasion when Louis first came to Woodruff to ask Brother L. H. Hatch if he might court his daughter.13
Louis was ordained an elder by his grandfather Jesse N. Smith on 29 Nov 1896. The next spring he started courting Achsah Mae Hatch and they decided to marry. “I had but little schooling and she no more, but I was 23 and she 21 and we agreed to share life together. My sister Constance wanted to go to school at Provo, so on September 12 we started out by team and wagon to go to Utah…on a road I did not know, with two girls for company.” They did not know where the very scarce watering holes were and when they did find them, they had been “awfully perfumed by coyotes. Sometimes the horses drank and sometimes they only smelled.” 14 (He doesn’t mention whether he and the girls drank the water.)
“Well we spent 17 long days getting to Parowan where we found my [father’s family] well. We stayed a few days, then took the train the rest of the way to Salt Lake City and Constance went to Provo for school.
On Oct. 8, Mae and Louis were married in the Salt Lake Temple. The services lasted from 8 a.m. until 6 p.m. 26 young couples were married that day. We stayed at Aunt Susan Smith’s home where I met some of my Smith relatives, then went to Logan and Franklin, Idaho, where a number of May’s brothers and sisters lived.
After their wedding trip, Louis contracted to carry mail on horseback between Heber to Young for the winter. When spring came they moved May’s organ and sewing machine, a table, cupboard, two nice chests made by her father, Lorenzo Hill Hatch and a rocking chair, table and chairs Louis traded for into a small log house in Taylor where most of their children were born. Louis continued to farm and carried freight between Holbrook and Ft. Apache (80 miles).
Six children were born in the next 10 years: Louis Francis b. 20 Nov 1898, Catherine b. 27 Mar 1901, Lorenzo Bruyn b. 24 Mar 1903, Alma Virgil b. 30 Dec 1904, Don Zechariah b. 18 Sep 1906 and Jesse Smith b. 10 April 1908.
When Smith was 6 months old Louis was called to serve a mission in California. Uncle Joseph W. Smith helped Louis financially, Uncle Ezra T. Hatch farmed the ranch on Day Wash, and Brother A.Z. Palmer told Louis his family could get their “needs” from his store. Louis hauled a large stack of wood to the house and with their garden, foodstuffs brought in from the ranch and other family and friends supplied the family the two years he was gone. Francis cut the wood and milked the cow. At age 10 he worked like a man to help his mother.15
Louis rode their horse “Old Mage” to Holbrook where he sold the horse and bought a train ticket to Los Angeles, arriving 20 Nov 1908. “I got myself equipped with a derby hat, a Prince Albert suit and other needs at Los Angeles and was sent to San Jose the first five months. He later served 7 months in Sacramento, then Reno, Nevada. The last 4 months were in San Diego. At the last of August 1910 he was released to go home. He went by way of Phoenix where they told him he had lost out his homestead claim. He insisted on a hearing, which he also lost but was able to preserve his homestead rights for the same land.
As he arrived home he found his family just recovering from a hard bout with whooping cough for all the children and a worn out wife, from caring for them all. His mother and both his father-in-law and mother-in-law had died during his mission. Financially depleted, they had to start over. He farmed 14 acres near town and ran a sheep herd on his homestead.
In the spring of 1911 he started planting out at the ranch to “improve” his property. While he was gone, Joy Wesley was born 16 May 1911. He was a premature baby and after a difficult delivery, suffered from cerebral palsy throughout his life. He learned to read but never was able to walk or feed himself without help. He was both a burden and a blessing for the entire family, until his death from a fall on 3 June 1937.
Louis moved his family to the ranch, organized a local school for his children and tried to farm as well as tend his sheep. Finding that the sheep and the family were more than one man could manage, he sold his sheep interests and bought cattle which were not such a demand on his time.16
16 Feb 1913 Carl Hatch was born. At the time of his birth Mae had contracted a severe case of pneumonia and was very slow to recover. She was exhausted from caring for Joy who was two years older than Carl.
Glenavieve was born 12 April 1915 in Taylor. They moved out permanently to the homestead in March 1916 leaving Catherine, Lorenzo and Alma in town to finish the school session. The two boys were sick with mumps, but the Forest officers told me I must be on the ranch with my family or lose the property. I got Mae and small children located at the ranch in an unfinished house and rode old Jeff to town 18 miles to check on the boys with mumps. The boys were in fair shape but on his return he turned sick. He tried to get his cattle out of some loco weed but was so sick he just barely made it back to their house. “Mumps on the range was a real case.
On 16 Dec. 1916 the youngest child, Freda Seraphina was born in Snowflake. Louis was able to file under the Homestead Act early in 1915. A school was established with 5 families and a Sunday school was organized for which he served as Superintendent.
18 Jan 1925 he was ordained a High Priest and set apart as a member of the Stake High Council by Apostle George F. Richards. He was very humble about this position and honored it highly. He never missed the meetings because of irrigating the field, nor for any other reason.17
Louis loved the theater. He acted in many home and church dramatics and sang in the church choir. His clear tenor voice was an asset to any choir.
Louis was honest. He could see no use for even white lies in an honest world. He loved his family, his country and his God. He never missed casting his vote for persons and government issues, national or local.
He and his uncle Samuel F. Smith were very close friends. They were only a few weeks apart in age and were more like brothers, than uncle and nephew.
There were many lean years in Louis’ life. Each of his children had to work hard for the necessities of life. They all loved school and managed to get the education they needed (most have advanced degrees in various fields) without government assistance.
Louis never had a pension. His draft number was up in 1917 but he had 10 children and an irregular heart beat so did not serve in World War I.18
He did not have much schooling, but he loved to read and was conversant on many subjects. He learned Spanish from his Mexican sheepherders. His childhood reading of the Book of Mormon gave him great knowledge of it. He often read it in Spanish as well as English. He had a sure knowledge of God’s existence and His love for mankind.
“Louis died 6 April 1960 in Gunnison, Utah after a stroke on March 7. The last thing he said to his family was, “Thank you all for all you have done for me.” They thank him for his great love for them. He taught by word and deed and made this world a better place for each of them by his faith, his hope and his charity.” 19
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Louis A. Decker story, written by himself (in possession of many grandchildren)
Sketch of the Life of Louis Addison Decker by his wife, Achsah Mae Hatch (in possession of many grandchildren)
Right-click [Mac Control-click] to open full-size image:
Louis A & Mae Hatch Decker, 1897
Louis Addison Decker, 1910