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| Nancy Bean Decker |
Nancy was born December 14, 1826 in Troy, Lincoln County, Missouri, the second child born to James and Elizabeth Lewis Bean. By the time she turned two years old, her parents had moved the family 90 miles north to Adams County, Illinois. They settled on a farm near Mendon, a small town not far from Quincy. There James and Elizabeth raised their family of seven children for a time.
George Washington Bean, Nancy’s brother, described his parents in his journal. “My parents were moral, circumspect and strictly religious people, though not of the same creed. My father was a Methodist and my mother a Presbyterian, so the children had the privilege of meeting many ministers, who often enjoyed the hospitality of his home, a stopping place for the Reverend Divines.”
In 1839, the Beans had the opportunity to host a new breed of religionists when the expulsion of the Mormons from Missouri brought a group of exiles to Adams County. One of the refugees, an uneducated Mormon elder named Alexander Williams, intrigued the family with the clarity of his views and his doctrinal explanations. Not surprisingly, local preachers did not share the Beans’ interest in the Mormon preaching. A couple of these ministers challenged Williams to a debate, which was held in the Bean home. Whatever the effect of Williams’ preaching on the gathered neighbors, the Beans responded to his message. In May of 1841 James, Elizabeth, and Nancy Bean joined a number of the local townspeople in affiliating with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. According to George Bean, Alexander Williams had become a close friend of the family and had the privilege of performing the baptisms. Nancy was fourteen years old.
Just a year after her baptism, Nancy was persuaded to marry Thomas J. Williams (apparently no relation to Alexander), a local school teacher 12 years her senior who boarded in the Bean home. They married on September 4, 1842 and had a daughter named Nancy Elizabeth (Mary Elizabeth according to some accounts) on August 10, 1843. Thomas never did join the Mormon faith, and that religious difference finally became an insurmountable barrier between them. In the spring of 1844, Nancy informed Thomas that there had been a revelation requiring all Mormons to join the body of the Saints in Nauvoo. She intended to go. Thomas refused. The tension increased over the summer and finally, on July 26, 1844 Nancy left Thomas and moved to Nauvoo. In the end, she had to choose between her daughter and her faith. Family stories suggest that Thomas or his father took the baby from Nancy at gunpoint, but no one has been able to substantiate those accounts. Suffice it to say that the break was painful and dramatic for all involved.
For whatever reason, Thomas Williams waited several months before filing for divorce on February 25, 1845. Nancy was served a summons to appear in court, but since she failed to appear, the court granted Thomas all of his demands and severed the marriage on May 8, 1845. Thomas raised Nancy Elizabeth in Warsaw, Illinois, just twenty miles from Nauvoo. Nancy apparently had no contact with her daughter for many years.
Soon after Nancy arrived in Nauvoo she became the second wife of John D. Lee, a man prominent in Nauvoo at the time and later infamous for his role in the Mountain Meadows Massacre. Lee wrote in his diary, "My second wife, Nancy Bean was the daughter of wealthy farmers. She saw me on a mission and heard me preach at her father's home. She came to Nauvoo and stayed at my house and grew in favor." They were married in early February 1845 (although some accounts list November of 1844).
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| Early photograph of Nauvoo Temple |
Nancy received her endowments on December 22, 1845. On January 14, 1846 Brigham Young performed the sealing of Nancy Bean to John D. Lee. Nancy gave birth to their daughter, Eliza, the very next day. Just three weeks later, she and her baby were among the first wave of saints to leave Nauvoo for Winter Quarters ahead of the mobs. Her parents followed around May 1.
During the time the Saints lived at Winter Quarters, Lee recorded in his journal that tension was mounting in his household, “especially with Nancy Bean.” She alternated between living with Lee and living with her parents. While she lived with her parents during the fall of 1846, sickness swept through the community and struck the Bean household. Nancy escaped the illness, but in October or November her seven year old sister, Cornelia, died. Nancy later changed the name of her daughter Eliza to Cornelia, presumably in honor of her sister.
In the summer of 1847 Nancy said a temporary “good-bye” to two more of her siblings. Sarah Ann’s husband, William Casper, had enlisted with the Mormon Battalion the previous summer, and church leaders felt it wise to take the families of the Battalion members to the Rocky Mountains so that the men would not have to return to Winter Quarters at the end of their tour of duty. George Bean, only 16 years old at the time, offered to accompany his sister Sarah and her baby across the plains. They left in June 1847, travelling with the Jedediah M. Grant-Willard Snow Company.
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| John D. Lee |
On June 5, 1848, newly divorced Nancy Bean left Winter Quarters along with her parents as part of the Brigham Young Company. This company of 1220 people was divided up into various smaller groups. Nancy and her parents traveled as part of the second company, under Captain William Perkins. William Perkins was a captain of 100, with two “counselors”: John D. Lee and Eleazer Miller. The company experienced the usual round of river crossings, baby births, illness, miracles, and occasional bickering common to most of the wagon trains.
On July 11, 1848, as the company camped along the Platte River, a group of men traveling east from the Salt Lake Valley arrived in camp. Much to the joy of Elizabeth Bean, her son George was among them. He was weak from hunger and fatigue but happy to be reunited with the rest of his family after seeing his sister safely to the Salt Lake Valley.
Just a week after this reunion, a man named Daniel Miller determined to take his wagons and as many as wanted to join him and split off from the larger wagon train in hopes of traveling faster and more efficiently. John D. Lee tried in vain to persuade Miller to stay with the group. Perhaps James Bean found Miller’s arguments persuasive, or perhaps the Beans hoped for some distance from Nancy’s former husband. In any event, the family joined the twenty or so wagons traveling with Daniel Miller and forged on ahead. They arrived in Salt Lake City on September 4, 1848, more than two weeks ahead of the rest of Captain Perkin’s company. According to Lee’s journal, the split angered Brigham Young, who felt that Miller and Bean and their company should have stayed around to share the burden with the larger group.
Once in the Salt Lake valley, the Bean family settled in the Millcreek area for the winter of 1848-49, probably living with Nancy’s sister Sarah Ann. It was in Millcreek that Nancy met Zachariah Bruyn Decker upon his return from California and the Mormon Battalion. Sarah Ann’s husband, William Wallace Casper, served with Zachariah in Company A of the Battalion and may have been instrumental in bringing the two together.
The following spring, James and Elizabeth Bean moved to Provo along with thirty families called to settle the area. Nancy stayed and married Zachariah, probably on October 4, 1849 (although some accounts list March 6, 1849). She was 22, and he was 32. Zachariah raised Cornelia Lee, age three at the time of their wedding, as his own daughter.
Zachariah Bruyn Decker
One account of Zachariah indicates that he and his two brothers, Johannis and Asa, made their way to Illinois to find their fortunes. The compiled “History of McDonough County” provides some insight into the movements of Zachariah’s brothers in Illinois in the 1830s. Apparently, Johannis Decker (and, if the family account is correct, Zachariah and Asa with him) moved to Chicago around 1836, probably after their father’s death in that same year. There, Johannis worked as a teamster for a few months before removing to Augusta, Illinois. He lived in Augusta, roughly 25 miles southeast of Carthage, until 1839, when he moved to nearby Macomb. Johannis married in Macomb in 1839, and both he and Asa settled in the area. Their mother joined them there and lived in Illinois for the rest of her life.
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| Marcus de Lafayette Shepherd |
Neither Zachariah’s brothers nor his mother ever joined the Mormons, and existing history tells little about the family’s reaction to his baptism. A compiled “History of McDonough County” does list Zachariah’s younger brother Asa among the citizens who fought in what was commonly known as the “Mormon War” around September 1846, during which the Mormons were expelled from Nauvoo. Although Zachariah had left Nauvoo by that point, Asa’s participation in the fight against the Mormons does suggest an environment ripe for family tension.
Not long after his baptism, Zachariah relocated to the Nauvoo area. He owned property near Nauvoo and Carthage and is listed among the residents of Nauvoo in 1844, where he was a member of the 27th Quorum of the 70. He was given his first patriarchal blessing in September of 1845 just a few months prior to leaving Nauvoo with the Saints and relocating to Council Bluffs, Iowa. While in Council Bluffs he enlisted in the Mormon Battalion on July 16, 1846. Susan Easton Black, in her biographies of Mormon Battalion members, describes Zachariah. “At the time of his enlistment he was 5’7”, having a dark complexion, brown hair, and gray eyes.” Zachariah, his friend Lafayette Shepherd, and his future brother-in-law William Wallace Casper were all assigned to Company A of the Battalion.
Zachariah liked to tell the following story from his time with the Mormon Battalion (quoted from “Life Sketch,” Zachariah Decker). “At one time the men had been rationed down so much they were always hungry. One day they came on to a bunch of buffalo and some of them were shot. The men dressed the meat and each man was preparing to cook some when their commanding officer, at the point of the bayonet, commanded them to throw the meat away. One by one they did as they were told, but when he came to Zachariah B. Decker, Zachariah said, ‘Shoot if you want to, but I’m not throwing my meat away. We are all starving.’ It rather cowed the officer, who just did it to show his authority. One by one the men got their meat and were filled.”
Zachariah was discharged along with the rest of the Battalion from Fort Moore in Los Angeles on April 16, 1847. Upon discharge, 223 of the men took leave of Los Angeles in what they called “groups of 50” and wound their way up California, gathering supplies in Sacramento and then heading East across the Sierra Nevadas to meet the main body of the Mormon pioneers. Along the way, they encountered a messenger from Brigham Young, who recommended that those men who had adequate supplies should continue on to the Salt Lake Valley, but that the others should remain in California to labor until spring. 105 of the men returned to California to work, Zachariah among them. Sutter’s Diary places Zachariah at Sutter’s Fort when gold was discovered on January 24, 1848.
Church records indicate that Zachariah brought gold to Utah and deposited that gold with Brigham Young in the Salt Lake Valley on January 7, 1849. He probably traveled to Utah in company with his friend Lafayette Shepherd and a company of twelve men who left California in October 1848. Zachariah met and married Nancy Bean not long after his arrival in Salt Lake.
And they begin the happily ever after…
Zachariah and Nancy lived in the Salt Lake valley for only a short time. Nancy’s daughter Cornelia remembered that the family built a one-room adobe cabin in Salt Lake City and lived there for a few months, during which time Nancy gave birth to her first son, Zachariah, on March 3, 1850. After a time, they moved back to Millcreek, but their stay there was short-lived.
In July of 1850, Brigham Young called for men “full of faith and good works; who have been blessed with means; who want more means and are willing to labor and toil to obtain those means” to establish the first Mormon colony in Southern Utah. The company formed under the direction of George A. Smith and Ezra T. Benson and left for what they called “Little Salt Lake” in December 1850. The roster of the Iron County Mission, as it was called, includes Zachariah Decker and John D. Lee among the 120 men, 31 women, and 18 children who made the journey. Nancy, newly pregnant, stayed behind with Cornelia (age five) and baby Zachariah, apparently living with her parents in Provo.
The colonizers reached Center Creek (located in between modern-day Parowan and Brian Head Ski Resort) in Iron County on January 15, 1851 and immediately formed a town government. Zachariah was elected constable of the new community. Among other duties, he had responsibility for protecting the five hundred head of cattle and horses that belonged to the citizens of the town.
In April of 1851, George A. Smith gave a favorable report on the new colony of Parowan. Crops looked good, and there were few problems with the Indians. Zachariah sent a team up to Provo to retrieve Nancy and the children, who arrived sometime before the middle of May. True pioneers, Zachariah and Nancy brought their considerable skills and penchant for hard work to the growing colony. Nancy became the town midwife and was, for a time, the only medical aid available in town. She was also an expert tailor and weaver. In addition to serving as constable, Zachariah occasionally taught school in the community. He also purchased a ranch near Chimney Meadow (north of Parowan and west of modern-day I-15). He was quite a frontiersman and handy with a gun. In fact, Zachariah’s son George said he referred to his gun as his “second wife.”
1852 brought both joy and heartache to the Deckers. The community began to thrive, and Nancy became pregnant with her fifth child. But in September, their daughter Gertrude died. She was just a little over one year old. Perhaps Gertrude’s death inspired thoughts of eternity. Just weeks later, Zachariah and Nancy traveled back to Salt Lake where, on November 6, 1852, Zachariah took out his endowments and was sealed to Nancy. Apostle Willard Richards performed the sealing in the Endowment House in Salt Lake City.
The next sixteen years brought nine more children to the family: James (1853), Cornelius Isaac (1854), Nathaniel Alvin (1856), Sarah Vilate (1858), Harriet Emily (1861), Mary Ardella (1863), George William (1864), Joseph Oscar (1867), Mahonri Moriancumer (1868). All of the children except Gertrude lived to adulthood, and most had families. Only George, Joseph Oscar, and Mahonri remained in Iron County.
During these years, the Deckers remained active in community and church life. Zachariah served as one of the presidents of the ninth quorum of the 70, helped recover the town’s cattle from the Little Creek Indian raid, assisted in building a military fort along the Sevier River during the Black Hawk Indian War in 1865, and made his way as a farmer. Their daughter Cornelia was sealed to her husband in the Endowment House in Salt Lake in 1865 and eventually settled in Colorado.
In 1869, with ten children at home between the ages of 1 and 19, Zachariah accepted a call to serve a mission to the Eastern States. He was set apart on October 17 at the age of 52. Although details from Zachariah’s mission are scanty, it is clear from contemporary accounts that a number of men were called in the October 1869 General Conference to serve short missions to the Eastern States. 110 of those missionaries arrived in Omaha in late November 1869, a number of them called to serve for a period of six months.
Upon his return home, Zachariah built an adobe home in the center of town and a cabin in the mountains outside of Parowan. When the town practiced the United Order from 1873 to 1876, Nancy served as a tailor and Zachariah acted as superintendent of the West Field.
A little side trip to the San Juan
As more and more saints gathered to the Utah Territory, Brigham Young sent groups on missions to populate the surrounding area. In 1879, in an effort to establish a Mormon presence east of the Colorado River, church leaders organized the San Juan mission. In April 1879, Silas S. Smith led a scouting party to find a suitable place for the saints to build a settlement. Zachariah, Jr. and his brother James formed part of that exploratory mission. The group chose a site at the mouth of the Montezuma Creek on the San Juan River. The difficulty lay in finding a reasonable route for the settlers to travel from what is now Southern Utah to the new settlement. In the end, the expedition chose a shortcut south of Escalante.
Zachariah and James returned to Parowan and packed up their families to make the move. They joined the rest of the expedition—consisting of 250 persons, 83 wagons, and over 1000 head of livestock—at the rendezvous point south of Escalante in November 1879. In addition to Zachariah, Jr. and James and their families, the expedition also included Zachariah, Sr. and three more of his sons: Cornelius Isaac, Nathanial Alvin, and George William. Cornelius and Nathanial brought their families. George, just barely 15 at the time of the trek, traveled with his father. Zachariah Sr.’s daughter Harriet Emily, and perhaps Sarah Vilate as well, also formed part of the group. Nancy remained home in Parowan with the younger children.
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| Photo from Escalante Heritage Center |
“We crossed the river on the 1st of Feb. all safe; was not half as scared as we thought we'd be, it was the easiest part of our journey. Coming down the hole in the rock to get to the river was ten times as bad. If you ever come this way it will scare you to death to look down it. It is about a mile from the top down to the river and it is almost straight down, the cliffs on each side are five hundred ft. high and there is just room enough for a wagon to go down. It nearly scared me to death. The first wagon I saw go down the put the brake on and rough locked the hind wheels and had a big rope fastened to the wagon and about ten men holding back on it and then they went down like they would smash everything. I'll never forget that day.”
Once across the river, the pioneers made their way through a dangerous wilderness to the San Juan River. Despite the perilous journey and the harsh conditions, no lives were lost along the trek. In fact, two babies were born during the trip, including a daughter born to James and Anna Decker.
The pioneers reached their destination in April 1880. James settled in Bluff, where he and four of his children died in the diphtheria epidemic of 1901-02. Nathanial, Cornelius, and Harriet Emily settled in Bluff for a time but eventually moved with their families to Colorado. Zachariah, Jr. and his father chose land two miles north of Montezuma Fort, where they intended to have a cattle ranch together. They built corrals and two cabins but soon discovered that the area along the Montezuma Wash was a corridor frequently traveled by renegade Indians. Zachariah, Jr. left the area in 1881 and pushed on to Arizona. Zachariah, Sr. returned to Parowan.
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| George Decker |
The Hole in the Rock expedition was Zachariah’s last pioneer trek. By the time he returned to Parowan, he was in his mid-60s, with most of his children grown. Only Joseph Oscar and Mahonri remained at home. Zachariah and Nancy continued to farm and garden, attend to their church duties and raise their remaining children. In his waning years, Zachariah used to love to spend time in his cabin in the mountains. He remained in relatively good health until Nancy’s death in March of 1903. She was 76, and the two had shared a life together for 54 years. Zachariah died just a few weeks later, on April 13, 1903 at the age of 86. Both were buried in Parowan, their home of 52 years.
Notes
1. Description of Nancy Bean from Myrtle Decker Janson, granddaughter, 22 October 1941.
2. Diary of George Washington Bean, quoted in “History and Character Sketch of James Bean, Pioneer to Utah in 1848,” by Flora B. Horn. Additional quotes from George Bean’s diary in “Some Descendents of John Doyle Lee,” compiled by Lorraine (Richardson) Mandersheid in 2000.
3. “Biographical Record of Daniel and Mary (Jackson) Williams, Early Kentucky Pioneers” Julielma M. Kelley 1898.
4. Information on marriage and divorce of Nancy Bean and Thomas Williams from Adams County, IL Chancery Cases, Case #389.
5. Bean family history from “Brief Life Sketch of Elizabeth Lewis Bean,” “The Story of Elizabeth Lewis Bean,” and “History and Character Sketch of James Bean, Pioneer to Utah in 1848,” all by Flora Bean Horne.
6. Nauvoo Temple Endowment Register, pg. 47 lists Nancy’s endowment date.
7. Information on divorce of Nancy Bean and John D. Lee from “Massacre at Mountain Meadows” and from Larry Decker’s talk at the 1999 Decker family reunion.
8. Trail notes come from various trail excerpts, including writings of John D. Lee, Jacob Miller, Thomas Bullock. (available in the Mormon Pioneer Overland Travel Database on www.lds.org)
9. Notes on early life of Zachariah from a document called “Notes on the Life of Zachariah Bruyn Decker, Senior.” I only have the first page, with no indication of the author.
10. Additional history from “History of Zachariah Bruyn Decker,” compiled by Luella Dalton.
11. “History of McDonough County Illinois” (1885) gives information on Zachariah’s brothers, Johannis and Asa Decker, who moved to Illinois in 1936.
12. Susan Black and L. Porter, BYU, Biographies, Mormon Battalion, Zachariah Bruyn Decker, Sr. (1817-1903) includes information on Zachariah’s conversion and time with the Battalion, as well as quotes from “Life Sketch, Zachariah Decker”.
13. “Mormon Battalion Trail: San Diego to Sutter’s Fort” and “New Information on Zachariah’s Gold,” both by Robert Decker Christenson, Report of the 1999 Zachariah Bruyn and Nancy Bean Decker family reunion.
14. Cornelia Lee Decker Mortensen quoted in “Some Descendents of John Doyle Lee,” compiled by Lorraine (Richardson) Mandersheid in 2000. This account also includes information on the move to Parowan.
15. Articles on the mission to Little Salt Lake posted in the Deseret News 27 July 1850, 16 November 1850 and 11 January 1851.
16. Additional information on the move to Parowan found in Susan Black and L. Porter, BYU, Biographies, Mormon Battalion, Zachariah Bruyn Decker, Sr. (1817-1903) and in “History of Zachariah Bruyn Decker,” compiled by Luella Dalton.
17. “Zachariah Bruyn Decker and Nancy Bean Decker, Utah Pioneers,” presentation by Larry Decker at the 1999 Zachariah Bruyn and Nancy Bean Decker family reunion.
18. Birthdates for the Decker children vary between ancestry.com and new.familysearch.org. These dates are from ancestry.com.
19. Accounts of Eastern States missionaries from the Jared Pratt Family Association web site and the Deseret News.
20. Information on the Hole-in-the-Rock expedition from Hole-in-the-Rock Trek Blanding 2010 and the National Park Service.
21. “George W. Decker’s Hole-in-the-Rock Experience,” from writings of his son, Ivin Decker.
22. “Zachariah Bruyn Decker and Nancy Bean Decker, Utah Pioneers,” presentation by Larry Decker at the 1999 Zachariah Bruyn and Nancy Bean Decker family reunion.
23. “History of Zachariah Bruyn Decker,” compiled by Luella Dalton.
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