Levi and Cynthia Decker are my 4x great grandparents on my maternal grandmother’s side of the family. According to a family bible (not in my possession) they were married on July 1, 1847 in Puttneyville, Wayne, NY.
Based on their graves located in the Hicks Cemetery, Watson, Allegan, Michigan I knew that Levi was born on February 22, 1818 and died August 27, 1891. Cynthia was born May 6, 1831 and passed away on March 4, 1907.
On the 1850 Census the couple was living in Ontario, Wayne, New York along with a sixteen year old named Caroline Taylor,her closeness in age to Cynthia makes me think that they could be sisters. The couple’s first child, Mary, would be born in October of that year.
By 1860, the family had relocated to Watson, Allegan, Michigan and had grown to include Mary, Francis, Levi Luther (my 3x great grandfather and the first to be born in Michigan), and George. Caroline Taylor is no longer listed as living with the family. The Decker family operated an 80 acre farm on Big Lake in Watson, and grew to include five more children by 1873.
Doing various Google searches on Levi, I found an article ordering all the children of Wilhelmus Decker to see the county judge on March 20, 1854 at 10 o’clock to prove their age and claim their inheritance.
This notice indefinitely ties Levi Decker of Watson, Allegany (Allegan), Michigan to to the late Wilhelmus Decker formerly of Ontario, Wayne, New York – where the couple lived while still newlyweds.
An interesting note is that George W. Cowles of Gallen, Wayne, NY, “special guardian of Nancy Decker”, was a republican member of the New York Congress from March 4, 1869 – March 3, 1871 and wrote a book on the history of Wayne County, New York. Why he was the “special guardian” of Nancy I do not know… yet!
Resurrecting Memories 