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hood she wore had partly broken the force of the blow, and prevented the axe from penetrating to the brain, the surgeon experimentally put a spoonful of liquor between her lips, whereupon she moved one of her ringers. Finding that she was alive, every possible effort was to restore her and with eventual success, though for six months the little sufferer hovered between life and death, and was anxiously watched, night and day, the house meanwhile being kept almost deathly still. It was nearly a year before little Clara spoke a loud word. The wound, which was a long gash running back near the middle of the head, was stitched and finally it healed, though leaving a deep scar which remained to her dying day.

Clara was about five years old when the family moved to Ohio and joined the church. I guess that it was here that her practical education began. Her older sister Lucy Ann, years later, told how she Lucy, stood on a chair to wash the dishes and all the family would arise in the morning at five, dress by candle light, have the work all done by seven, ready to sit down and begin the real work of the day.... spinning, weaving, and sewing. At night, the candles were never lighted only long enough to see them all to bed. During the summer months the hour for rising was four o’clock. The candles, soap, carpets and clothing for the whole family were all made within the home.

Clara’s biographers tell nothing of any formal education. I suppose her ex-schoolteacher mother took good care of that department. Quoting from Orson F. Whitney again, “Isaac Decker was a well to do farmer, and the family at this time was in comfortable circumstances (1836-1837). A test now came to prove them, whether as Saints they stood ready to sacrifice their all upon the alter of duty and devotion or like many professing to be Saints, when weighed in the balance of trial they would be found wanting.

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.

In this hour of extremity they found a staunch friend in Lorenzo D. Young, brother of Apostle Brigham Young, who sold his farm and with the proceeds outfitted several teams to convey himself, his family and friends to Missouri. With characteristic generosity, Brother Lorenzo gave one of the teams to Isaac Decker and otherwise helped to prepare him for the journey, which they performed in company. They left Kirtland in October 1837 and traveled slowly to the southwest. At Dublin, Indiana they were joined by the Prophet Joseph, his brother Hyrum and Brigham Young who had all fled from the fury of the Kirtland mobs.

It was probably here at Dublin that Clara was transferred to the Prophet’s outfit. She traveled the balance of the way to Far West with the Prophet’s family, further cementing the close ties that existed between the two families. Lorenzo and Isaac, by the counsel of the Prophet settled in Daviess County through the summer including Clara’s tenth birthday. From then on she was right in the middle of all the Church troubles.

Lorenzo had bought a farm (March 1838) and Isaac rented one. They diligently set to work to build homes
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