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love and respect, that’s your fault: it’s in your hymn-book (laughter). It was in the hymn-book when he was around. It was in the first LDS hymn-book that Emma Smith put out in 1835. It’s been in every one since. And I’m told it’s the most often-sung hymn in Christendom to this day. Okay? So if it isn’t familiar to you, you might want to make it familiar to you. If you don’t have a purple song-sheet, Brent will give you one, and Brent will lead us.

Brent Anderson:

I have heard Elder Packer refer to this as the “sealed portion” of the hymnal (laughter).

Richard B. “Andy” Anderson:

If we’ll gather a little more tightly together, we’ll be warmer and we’ll sound better, okay?

Brent Anderson:

Looking at it, it isn’t obvious...the melody goes [sings]...that’s the melody; it has been put to many, many, many, many words.

Richard B. “Andy” Anderson:

It’s the German National Anthem, among other things.

Brent Anderson:

Einigkeit, und Recht, und Freiheit...OK.

[Singing]

Richard B. “Andy” Anderson:

Thank you, Brent. Thank you, everybody, for singing lustily. Let me now introduce Steve Nelson, who is going to give us a historical sketch of Isaac Decker’s life, and then I will offer the rededicatory prayer for his grave and the dedicatory prayer for our monument.

Steve Nelson:

Well, family! It’s good to be here, isn’t it? Even though it’s a little chilly. Just think of what our ancestors had to do in order to get here. This was probably a pretty good day, for many of times, at the time they coming on. My
name is Steve Nelson, but I want you also to especially appreciate the work Richard has done, interms of bringing this together. He’s been a major contributor, and I’m just really impressed with him and his efforts to do so. My role in this has been...I’ve been writing a book, and so I’ve been trying to find information about Isaac and what I’ve got. So I want you to know he’s my hero, too. Just a couple of quick facts about it. I realize it’s a cold day, and my wife has told me to keep it short. (laughter)

Anyway, Isaac is a hero. He joined the Church at the Kirtland period. At the Kirtland period, Joseph Smith came to Isaac and said, “We need your help. The bank is in trouble.” Isaac was a rich man; he was a rich farmer. He gave virtually everything he had to the salvation of the Kirtland bank, all to no avail, as you probably know the bank failed. Now, this was a very dark day in the history of the Church, because one third of the leadership of the Church apostatized, most of them partly because of the failure of the bank. That was proof to the members of the Church, or the leadership of the Church, that Joseph Smith was not a prophet. And so they simply apostatized. Fifteen per cent of the community of the Saints at that time apostatized.

If anybody had an excuse to apostatize, it was our Isaac. ’Cause he lost everything. In fact, he didn’t even have enough money to get to Missouri. Lorenzo Dow Young, a good friend of his, gave him a wagon and team so he could go to Missouri, because of everything he lost. When he got to Missouri, he couldn’t afford to buy a house; so he had to rent. But he started to build up a little opportunity there. He was a loyal man.

During that time, there was a couple of things that happened. One, he got kidnapped. He was taken prisoner, for better than a week. His daughter said, after he came back, he was unhurt, he was well treated, because he had such a good personality and was such a friend to everybody.

And in addition to that, he was also in the battle of Crooked River, when Patten got killed. He answered a call to go on a mission. He never went on the mission, because he got kicked out of Missouri, before he could leave. He got into Illinois, and in Illinois, his last son was born, and that was my great-grandfather, and that was Isaac Perry Decker. And then for some crazy reason,
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Isaac Decker
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