Marion Progress

MR. JOHN EMERY DECKER

In 1897, Mr. John Emery Decker, with his wife, Mrs. Adah Payne Decker, and one daughter, Miss Joyce Decker, came to Marion from Pennsylvania to establish residence and to become a part of the religious, civic, social, and business life of our little city. Mr. Decker was born in Blakeley, Pa., June 27, 1858, and after spending some years in Gibson, Pa., he came to Marion.

During his thirty-eight years in Marion Mr. Decker won for himself a place of confidence and respect in the minds and hearts of the citizenship of Marion that few men have been able to command. When his death was announced on Sunday morning, April 28, 1935, the words of the Old Testament were upon the hearts and lips of many of those who knew and loved him: "Know ye not that there is a prince and a great man fallen this day in Israel?"

Mr. Decker was faithful to his church, serving on the Board of Trustees of the First Methodist Episcopal Church, South, of Marion, and was a faithful and consistent worshipper. He was also prominent in the business life of Marion, having served as one of the directors of the Merchants and Farmers Bank before its consolidation. His honest and upright business relationships as dealer in building supplies won for him a host of loyal and faithful friends.

Victor Hugo has said, "It is nothing to die. It is a terrible thing not to have lived." One of the reasons why we think of death as being so horrible is because too often those who die have not really lived. Mr. Decker had lived so successfully the life of a Christian gentleman that those who knew him best cannot feel that his going was untimely, but that it was the normal translation of a great soul into the presence of Him Whom he loved and served, and for Whose presence he had made ample preparation. Joseph Cook was writing of such great souls when he wrote: "Wherever we find a wing, we find air to match it; a fin, water to match it; an eye, light to match it; an ear, sound to match it; perception of the beautiful, beauty to match it; and so through all the myriads of known cases. From our possession of a constitutional instinct we expect existence after death."

Mr. Decker has left behind him an influence and an example that will be unending. The influence of a good man has never been accurately estimated, because of the limitations of finite minds. Only God, Who is Eternal, can estimate the worth of a life, whose influence lives, though the physical form no longer moves in our midst. This should be to all of us who tarry an inspiration to make the following words our own:

"Let us so live, that when in the evening of life the silver clouds rest sweetly invitingly upon the mountains, and the light of heaven streams down through the gathering mists of death, we may have a peaceful and joyous entrance into that world of blessedness, where the great riddle of life, whose meaning we can only guess at here below, will be unfolded to us in the quick consciousness of a soul redeemed and purified."

Surviving are the following: The widow, Mrs. Adah Payne Decker, one daughter, Miss Joyce Decker, one sister-in-law, Mrs. Clarence Decker, one niece, Mrs. J. E. Kanipe, and one great niece, Miss Dorothy Decker Kanipe.