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| Isaac Decker Chronology 1836-1837 |
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| 23 May 1836 | Received elder’s license 23 May 1836 | (14) p. 80 |
| Jun 1836 | Included among the Elders. | (20) Jun 1836, p. 335 |
| 4 Apr 1837 | Anointed 4 April 1837 | (14) p. 80 |
| Isaac united with the Kirtland Elders’ Quorum and was anointed. | (14) p. 27 | |
| “Isaac Decker was a well-to-do farmer, but beggared himself in a vain attempt, made also by others equally devoted and self-sacrificing, to save the financial credit of the Church at the time of the Kirtland bank failure.” | (2) Vol 8 p. 175 | |
| 1836-1837 | One evening in the winter of 1836-7, or early in the spring
of the latter year, the Prophet Joseph came to the house of Isaac
Decker in Franklin. He confided to him some of the affairs of the
church in Kirtland. more especially its financial status, which
was then in precarious condition. The Kirtland Bank, established
for the purpose of controlling the spirit of speculation, then
sweeping over the church, threatening its spiritual existence, was
owing to the dishonesty of some of its officials and the schemes
of outside combinations, on the verge of bankruptcy. Thousands of
dollars were needed to tide over the critical time, save the
financial credit of the church, and prevent the bank from
breaking.
Isaac Decker was asked to supply a large portion of this amount, to replace stolen money and “break” the run being made on the institution. The response was immediate and heroic. The Deckers sacrificed everything, house, farm, livestock, even their household furniture was sold to raise the sum required to buy up the bank’s floating paper. But, all was in vain. The opposing combinations were too strong. Counterfeits of the Kirtland bills were put in circulation and in spite of every effort to prevent it, the ruin of the bank was accomplished. In common with many similar institutions throughout the country, for it was a year of general financial disaster, it went down in the ruinous crash of 1837. The Decker family was now penniless, without a dollar in the world save in the bushels of worthless paper they had sacrificed their all to redeem. In this sorry plight they came to Kirtland in the summer of 1837. Just as the Church, or the main body of it was preparing to abandon that region and migrate to Missouri. It was the desire of the Deckers to go also, but they were without means to undertake such a journey, which was one thousand miles over rivers and through forests to the nation’s frontier. | (23) |
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