He owned an extensive farm or tract of land along the Delaware river,
the southeast part of which bounded on the land of Kuykendall, near
which he probably first settled. [FN]
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[FN] It is now a few years over a century since the fall of the
deepest snow ever known in this part of our country; and before it
fell Peter Kuykendall and wife went to Esopus and left their children
home, where John Decker and his wife were to go daily and see to them
and render such assistance as would be necessary. Two or three days
after they started this snow fell, and the morning after its falling
John Decker commenced to shovel and make a footpath through the snow
to Kuykendall's house. He worked all that day and the greatest part
of the next day before he got to it, and found the door shut so that
the children could not get out of the house. The door opened to the
outside, and the snow laid so deep against it that it could not be
opened from the inside before the snow was removed. It is probable
that they first settled as near to each other as their situations of
ground, water, &c., would admit. No victuals had been prepared for
the children on the previous day to serve them for the next. They
contrived to get meal, mix it up with water, bake it some on the
hearth before the fire, and lived on it till they were otherwise
provided for.
One son, Martin Decker, married ____ ____. They lived in the old
stone house of Stephen St. John, and he became owner of a part of his
father's farm. They had two sons-John and Richard, and ____ daughter,
____.
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