WILLIAM W. DECKER, one of Clay county’s brave and honored sol-
dier citizens, was born in Butler county, Ohio, March 16, 1844, a son of
Obediah D. and Sarah Ann (Austin) Decker, both of whom were natives
of the county named. The father, who was of German and Irish ancestry,
died at the age of seventy-one years, and the mother, of English lineage,
passed away at the age of sixty-two. They were married in Butler
county, Ohio, June 11, 1837, and became the parents of nine sons, two of
whom died in infancy and two (Robert and John) in manhood; the living
are Jesse A., William W., Elmond A., Andrew S. and Obediah Decker.
Seven lived to be voters and with their father cast their ballots for
Republicanism.
    Obediah Decker’s father was John Decker, who came from Fayette
county, Pennsylvania, to Butler county, Ohio, where he established him-
self as a farmer and died at about thirty years of age. Obediab was the
only son. The widow married David Hulse and she herself died when
the boy was fifteen years of age. The orphaned youth then learned the
shoemaker's trade and became an expert hunter of small game. After-
ward he was employed on a packet boat, engaged in transferring coal
along the Ohio river, but finally returned to Butler county, Ohio, where
he married Sarah Ann Austin on the 11th of June, 1837. After residing
there for some ten years they removed to Clay county, Indiana, where
the husband engaged in various industries and lines of business and
became a large dealer in furs and bought and improved a large farm and,
after the building of the Vandalia Railroad, invested in coal mines. He
also entered the real estate field, engaged in building and brick manufac-
turing, and himself erected a fine brick house on his farm, which was
quite a mansion for those days and is still standing. Further, he was
associated with Messrs, Modisett, Hawkins and Serdam in a flour mill,
which was destroyed by a hurricane in 1862. The plant was located at
what was then Highland, now Staunton. During these early days before
the courts and police machinery were fairly organized there was much
lawlessness in this section of the state, murders and robberies being of
not infrequent occurrence. What was called the John A. Clark gang,
comprising about a hundred desperate characters, terrorized the whole
country for a number of years, and for the purpose of breaking up the
organization the citizens formed a company that was called the Regu-
lators and elected Mr. Decker captain. The citizens’ body comprised
several hundred men from Terre Haute, Brazil, Bridgeton, Ashboro and
Center Point, and in a short time drove the obnoxious characters out of
the country. Mr. Decker was a large raiser of corn and wheat and also
of stock, his stock always being prominent prize winners at the county
fairs. He finally removed to Brazil, bought the Sherman House, in which
occupation he spent the last years of his life, dying on the 9th of May,
1885.
    William W. Decker was a small boy when he came with his parents
to Indiana, reaching manhood in Clay county. His boyhood was spent in
an unsettled country, and, like his father, he loved the woods and became
a famous hunter of such game as mink, coons, wild turkeys, deer and
upon several very rare occasions, of bear and panthers. As he would
rather work than study and schools were scarce at best, his education was
of the most limited nature. At the age of sixteen he worked in the
Highland flour mill, and afterward assisted his father in clearing his
farm about a mile southwest as well as in sawing logs for the house
patterns which the father sent to Terre Haute , and chopping wood to be
used in the brick manufactory.Later, he learned to make brick and to
lay them.

    At the declaration of the Civil war Mr. Decker enlisted in Company
G. Seventy—eighth Regiment. Indiana Volunteer Infantry, under Colonel
Rose and Captian J. W. Sanders and was afterward attached to the
Fifty—fourth Regiment and Colonel Knox's regiment and then to the
Fifteenth Indiana Volunteers under Colonel Donham. While with this
command he participated in the siege and surrender of  Munfordsville
Kentucky. September 12—14, 1862. The defending force of Union troops
consisted of between 3,000 and 4,000 men, mostly raw troops, the 800
under Colonel Wilder having neither guns nor ammunition. But the
order of the superior officer was to hold the place to the last: and it was
held against overwhelming odds until a surrender was effected with all
the honors of war. The first night of the surrender 700 or 800 succeeded
in making their escape (including Mr. Decker) , but were recaptured about
eight miles away and returned to the headquarters of  Bragg and Butler,
where the prisoners were paroled and sent to General Buell's army. They
then marched through Bowling Green and thence to Brandenburg on the
Ohio river in Kentucky, where they boarded the transports, crossed the
river and, marching to New Albany and Jeffersonville, obtained trans-
portation to Indianapolis.
    Following his return Mr. Decker attended school during a part of
the winter of 1862, and after legal exchange enlisted in Company D.
115th Indiana Volunteer Infantry. While engaged in recruiting duty
and in attendance at school he wore his uniform of blue, and during this
period received a notice from the Knights of the Golden Circle (rabid
sympathizers with the Confederacy) that they would hang any man wear-
ing the garb of a Union soldier at their meetings. Mr. Decker and Cap-
tain Sanders took the notice to Governor Alorton, who provided them
with a force and gave them orders to shoot to kill, in case they were
molested. This action broke up the camp of the Knights of the Golden
Circle, near the old hill, Clay county, Indiana. On the 5th of Augtust,
1863, Mr. Decker re-enlisted for service, being assigned to Company D,
115th Regiment, Indiana Volunteer Infantry, and was honorably dis-
charged in 1864. He served as a member of the Twenty-third Army
Corps from the 1st of August, 1863, until his discharge, and was under
the general command of Major Generals George L. Hartstuff and Burn—
side. This corps took part in the following engagements, in many of
which Mr. Decker personally participated Scott’s raid, from July 25
to August 6, 1863 ; Green River Bridge, July 4, 1863 ; Morgan's raid into
Kentucky, Ohio and indiana, July 2—26, 1863; Limestone Station, Ten—
nessee, September 8, 1863; Cumberland Gap, Tennessee, September 7-10;
Bristol, Tennessee, September 19, 1863  Carter's Station, Tennessee, Sep—
tember 20-21, 1863 ; Blountsville  Tennessee, September 22, 1863 ; Calhoun,
Tennessee, September 26, 1863 Blue Springs,  October 5, October 10,
1863 Philadelphia, October 20, October 26, 1863 Sweet Water, October
26-27,  1863 Rogersville, November 6, 1863; ; Huff’s Ferry. November 14
Marysville Loudoun Creek, Lenair Holston River, Campbell's Station,
November 10, 1863; siege of Knoxville, November 17-December 6; Bean’s
Station, December 14; Blain’s Cross Roads, December 16-19; Mossy
Creek, December 24-29, 1863, all in Tennessee; and Munfordsville, Ken-
tucky, September 12-14, 1862. At Bean’s Station Mr. Decker assisted
in the capture of a train.
    After his return from the front, Mr. Decker operated a sawmill in
Posey township for a time, then engaged in farming, but soon returned
to his sawmill work on the line of Vigo and Clay counties. He then
successively engaged at the carpenter’s trade, farmed and sunk a coal
shaft in Perry township, removed two years later to Brazil and engaged
in the grocery business, after a year embarked in the teaming and under-
taking business, was in the grocery line with his brother Andrew, again
worked as a carpenter and in 1886 established a business in second-hand
merchandising. As a fraternalist Mr. Decker has been identified with
the Ancient Order of United Workmen and with the General Canby Post
No. 2, Grand Army of the Republic, at Brazil, Indiana.
    On the 27th of August, 1864, Mr. Decker married Miss Loretta
Jane West, who was born in Terre Haute, Indiana, and died July 30,
1887, when but thirty-four years of age. She was the daughter of
William and Amanda (Lee) West. Her father was born in Clay county,
Indiana, a son of James West, and he was a Terre Haute cabinet maker.
He was a Republican, a Mason, a member of the Regulators (already
mentioned), and of the Baptist church, and died in a soldier’s hospital at
Indianapolis from disease contracted in the Union army, in which he
served as a member of the Seventy-first Regiment of Indiana Volunteers,
Sixth Cavalry. Mrs, West was born in Vigo county, Indiana, was also
married in that county, and Mrs. Decker was her only child. Four of
the ten children born to Mr. and Mrs. Decker are living: Morton E.,
Charles S., Hattie B. and William W.