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| Uncle (3G) Charles Franklin Decker |
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DESERET EVENING NEWS: SATURDAY, MARCH 23, 1901 (P. 2) |
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“UNCLE CHARLIE” One of the Picturesque Characters END IS REACHED AT VERNAL Crossed the Plains Fifty-three Times A telegram was received in this city last night announcing the death of Charles F. Decker, which occurred at Vernal yesterday morning. He was familiarly known as “Uncle Charlie,” and his demise removes one of the last of the picturesque characters whose lives were associated with the plains, when the West was inhabited by the bison and the Indian. He had attained the ripe age of 77 years, having been born in Ontario county, New York, June 21, 1824. He was of German descent and inherited a strong, rugged constitution and lightness of heart that bore him up through many stirring scenes of peril and exposure. When he was a boy his parents moved to Kirtland, Ohio, and subsequently went on to Missouri, settling in Davis county in that State. His family suffered with the rest of the Saints in the deprivations and outrages imposed upon them by the Missouri mobs. page 17 |
During the latter part of this period Charlie was casting abut the country engaging in anything that came to hand that offered any pecuniary
reward. The beginning of his romantic career as scout, Indian fighter and pony express rider began in Doublin, Indiana, where he engaged to ride pony express on a thirty-five mile route, traveling seventy miles every twenty-four hours, at the rate of twelve miles an hour, rain or shine. His taste for this kind of a life soon paled before the ambition to work on the river, and obtaining his father’s consent he abandoned the pony express and followed the river life for three years. PLAYED A USEFUL PART When his people approached that part in the drama of their life that forced their exodus from Nauvoo, he left the river boat to play a humble but highly useful prt through those most stirring scenes. He offered his services to President [Uncle] Brigham Young, who soon found him to be almost indispensable at that time. He was always there with a helping hand where it was most needed, and his cheery voice and encouraging smile were some of the factors that kept an insufferable gloom from settling down over the people. Uncle Charlie was wont at times to describe in his homely but graphic style the story of the crossing of the Mississippi river on the ice; the journey to Winter Quarters under the most distressing conditions and the strenuous fight against starvation.At this time President Young honored the redoubtable youth by |
giving him the hand of his oldest daughter, Vilate, in marriage. The ceremony was performed in a crude hut at Winter Quarters. Uncle Charlie and his wife did not come to Utah with the Pioneer band, his strong arm and stout heart being needed in the camp.
But they came on with the first immigration train afterwards and settled in the Thirteenth ward. He struggled with the crickets the next year and worked diligently on the small farm. His agricultural pursuits, however, were broken into continually as he was often called on to go back and help the immigration train, and to freight merchandise. CROSSED FIFTY-THREE TIMES During those years he crossed the plains fifty-three times and a vast volume could be written recounting his experiences, his marvelous escape from death in a hundred ways. He always bore a manly part, and when any danger was to be encountered his head must be the first to be exposed. Though the hard life on the frontier and on the plains made his exterior rugged and somewhat rough, his heart though stout was naturally gentle and he never wantonly did a cruel dee. He was forced sometimes to fire at Indians to save his own life, but when the redskins once shook his hand and looked him in the eye, they were his friends through life, as Indians only can be friends.A MAIL CONTRACT In 1857 he engaged with [Uncle] Feramorz M. Little and [Uncle]next page… |
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