John and Dinah began their married life in Minisink, New Jersey. Later they moved to Smithfield or Water Gap, Monroe county, Pennsylvania and then to Wallpack Center, Sussex county, New Jersey. About 1743 they moved with several other Decker and Kuykendall families to Hampshire county,Virginia, (now Hardy county, West Virginia) and settled on the South Branch of the Potomac River near the town of Romney. There, in 1749, Lord Fairfax granted John and Dinah lot 9. During April 1758 they went to live at the settlement of Tobias Decker, John's brother, on Decker's Creek in Monongalia county, Virginia, (now West Virginia). Apparently the Indian attack of October 16, 1759 sent john and Dinah back to the South Branch valley of Hampshire county, Virginia (now Hardy County, West Virginia). In 1767 they sold lot 9 to Dinah's brother Abraham and moved a few miles to Yohogania (now Augusta) county, Virginia. Later John and Dinah went to Washington county, Pennsylvania. In 1775 they settled at DECKER'S FORT, on the OHIO RIVER near the junction of CROSS CREEK and the OHIO RIVER, in the MINGO BOTTOMS, near Wellsburg, Brooke county, Virginia (now West Virginia). John sold this property on May 4, 1784 even though he had not been officially granted the land until November 18, 1785. In 1784, with their sons, (except for John) and their families, they moved to Knox county, Indiana. They traveled down the Ohio River and up the Wabash river in three skiffs. They stopped awhile in Jefferson county, Kentucky. Legend has it that on the night of their arrival in Fort Vincennes, the Indians kidnapped one of the children of their party....
The Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) recognizes Jan Decker as a Patriot. In the old court records there is a statement that he was appointed by the court to be one of a committee to determine where a new road should be located. The DAR says this constitutes enough to justify the distinction of Patriot.
The Decker brothers were four in number. John's family, John Jr. Tobias, Joseph and Moses, were of the third gen. of pioneer Dutch family, Jan Garrettson de Decker and Gretjen Hendricks, who had wed at Kingston, NY 23 Mar 1664. Their son, Garret, had John wed to Dina Kuykendall, and they reared seven children.
