Isaac and Harriet Decker

Family tradition says that Oliver’s and Hannah’s daughter Harriet Page Wheeler was a 17-year-old schoolteacher in 1820, when she married 20-year-old New York State farmer Isaac Decker, and they set up housekeeping in Phelps, Ontario County, New York, near her parents’ home in Farmington.

While in Phelps from 1820 to 1827, the Deckers produced the first three of their half-dozen very distinguished children:

firstborn daughter, our great-great-grandmother Lucy Ann in 1822
son Charles Franklin in 1824
daughter Harriet Amelia in 1826

From 1827 to 1835, they lived in Freedom, Cattaraugus County, New York, where they added two more children:

Daughter Vilate Clarissa, usually known as Clara, born 1828, and
Daughter Fannie Maria in 1830.

Finally, caboose son Isaac Perry came along in Illinois a decade later (1840).

Each of these became a significant pioneer of the American West, generating along the way many stories, ranging from heartwarming to horrifying. This one, from Clara’s early childhood, falls mainly in the latter category.

Back (Decker House, Elton)

Next (Clara and the axe)

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Updated 30 Aug 2009	[HarrietIsaac.htm]