Isaac DECKER

                   Historical information included in notes.



Harriet was one of the three original pioneer women of Utah. Harriet's ancestors were from Wales, having emigrated to America five generations before she was born. When about two years old, she removed from her birthplace with her parents to Salem, Massachusetts, the birthplace of her mother. She attended school until she was ten years of age, when she entered one of the Salem factories, where she became an expert spinner of flax and wool and equally efficient as a weaver, milliner and cook. When seventeen years of age, she moved to New York State to teach school near the little town of Phelps, Ontario county, and about four miles from the hill Cumorah. She formed the acquaintance of Isaac Decker, to whom she married. The Decker family removed to Freedom, Cattaraugus county, New York, and afterwards to New Portage, Portage county, Ohio, where they became converts to "Mormonism" and subsequently removed to Franklin, a few miles from Kirtland. Isaac Decker was a prosperous farmer and gathered considerable means around him, but when the call was made, he freely placed everything upon the altar to relieve the financial distress of the Church. In the fall of 1837 the family went to Kirtland, penniless, and at the time the saints were leaving that town under the stress of dire persecution, Lorenzo D. Young gave Isaac Decker a team and otherwise assisted him on his journey to Missouri, where the Decker's went in 1837. In Missouri the family was exposed to the bitter storm of persecution which descended upon the saints there. Under the exterminating order of Governor Boggs they fled to Quincy, Illinois, and subsequently resided at Winchester. In 1841 the family removed to Nauvoo, where the husband and wife separated and Harriet became the wife of Lorenzo Dow Young. Brother Young had been a true friend to the Decker family in Ohio and Missouri. After sharing in the expulsion from Nauvoo and the subsequent life in the wilderness (spending the winter of 1846-1847 at Winter Quarters), Sister Harriet was permitted to remain with her husband, when he was chosen as one of the original pioneers in the spring of 1847, because she was in delicate health and her husband was afraid she would die if he left her in the Missouri bottoms. No mistake was made in this decision, as Sister Harriet became a veritable nurse to the sick all along the weary journey and did a thousand deeds which only a noble hearted energetic woman can think of. When she arrived in the valley July 24, 1847, she had an awful heartache at the thought of passing the remainder of her days in such a desolate and barren place, but her heart was brave and strong and she flung despair to the winds. In 1849 she returned to the Missouri river with her husband who had gone to assist his brother Joseph to the valley. On her return in 1850 she nearly lost her life while driving through a river, but here cool presence of mind saved her. On one occasion, while living where the "Beehive House" now stands, she was saved from an Indian by her husband's faithful dog. When the animal was finally induced to release the "redskin," Mrs. Young dressed his wound and sent him on his way a wiser and, it is to be hoped, a better Indian. Courage, energy and magnanimity were signal qualities with Sister Harriet, and when at last on September 22, 1871, in Salt Lake City, she passed to her rich reward (69 years old), all the people of the valley mourned her inestimable loss. She was truly a mother in Israel.