Charles F. Decker is one of Provo’s enterprising, wide-awake
young business men. He is a native of this State and a son of one
of the pioneers, Isaac P. Decker, who came to Utah in 1847 with the
second company of pioneers, as a lad of seven years, and is still
living in Salt Lake City.
Charles F. Decker was born in Salt Lake City September 15, 1863, and
there grew up and obtained his education in the schools of that
place. At the age of nineteen he left school and engaged in
teaming, following that until 1886, when he entered the employ of
the Pacific Express Company as a messenger between Ogden and
Cheyenne. He resigned his position in 1890 and became associated
with Spencer Clawson, as salesman in the wholesale department of the
establishment for two years. In 1892 he came to Provo and took
charge of the old Cosmopolitan Hotel, and the following year took
the agency of the Pacific Express Company at this place, which
position he still retains. He began handling produce and fruits
about the time he entered the employ of the Express Company, and has
since continued a wholesale business, handling fruits and produce by
the carload and shipping to markets in the East and South.
Beginning in a small way, Mr. Decker has by judicious management and
close attention built up one of the finest businesses in this line
in the State, his sales amounting to from seventy-five to one
hundred thousand dollars a year. He also handles fish and game in
season, doing a wholesale trade in this line. In addition to
handling Utah fruits he handles large quantities of California
fruits for the Southern Utah market, supplying most of the trade in
that district. Like most other business men in this State, he has
some mining properties, his interests lying in the Tintic disctrict.
Mr. Decker was married October 29, 1888, to Miss Lizzie Dunn,
daughter of James Dunn, whose sketch appears elsewhere in this
work. Six children have been the result of this union – Charles V.,
Ethel, Elmer, Stanley, Glenn, and Edna.
In his political belief Mr. Decker is a Democrat. He served on the
City Council in 1901-3, and was a member of various committees,
being on the committees of finance, public grounds and city
property, and railroads and telegraph lines. He has taken a lively
interest in public affairs since living here, and is one of the
public-spirited men of the city.
He is a member of the Mormon Church, in which he holds the office of
Elder of the First Provo Ward. Our subject is one of the best known
and most highly respected men in Provo, and his career has been an
honor to him and a source of pride to those who know him best.
In March, 1902, Mr. Decker received the first carload of seed
potatoes ever brought into Utah in carload lots, and distributed
them among the farmers of Utah County, so as to improve the seed and
pave the way for better crops in the future.
