Bio of DECKER, Edward Williams (b.1869), Hennepin Co., MN
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EXTRACTED FROM: History of Minneapolis, Gateway to the Northwest; 
Chicago-Minneapolis, The S J Clarke Publishing Co, 1923; Edited by: Rev. 
Marion Daniel Shutter, D.D., LL.D.; Volume I - Shutter (Historical); 
volume II - Biographical; volume III - Biographical
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EDWARD WILLIAMS DECKER - Vol II, pg 86-89
With an equipment that included no college training and no special advantages
Edward Williams Decker started out in the business world and soon passed on to
positions of executive control, subsequently bending his energies largely to
organization, to constructive effort and administrative direction. He has for a
number of years been one of the most prominent representatives of the banking
fraternity in Minneapolis as president of the Northwestern National Bank and has
long been connected with that little group of distinctively representative
business men in the Twin Cities who have been not only promoters of various
important business enterprises but at all times have been cognizant of their
duties and obligations in regard to the public welfare and have utilized their
opportunities for promoting public progress with notably splendid results.
A native of Minnesota, Edward Williams Decker was born in Austin, August 24,
1869, his parents being Jacob S. and Mary Ann H. (Smith) Decker, both of whom
were of Holland Dutch lineage. The progenitors of the American branch of the
Decker family came to this country during the colonial epoch in our history and
settled where now stands the village of Esopus, on the banks of the Hudson river
in New York. About 1720 representatives of the name removed to the New Jersey
side of the Delaware river and it was at Flatbrookville that the parents of
Edward W. Decker were born, and there they remained until after their marriage.
Attracted by the opportunities of the west, they removed to Minnesota and
settled on a farm in Mower county, near Austin, so that the youthful experiences
of Edward W. Decker were those of the farm bred boy whose time is divided
between the acquirement of a district school education, the pleasures of the
playground and the work of the fields. At a later period he continued his
education as a high school student in Austin and was there graduated with the
class of 1887. He sought the broader and more varied business opportunities of
Minneapolis when he started out to make his initial step in the business world,
securing the position of messenger in the Northwestern National Bank of this
city. He early learned the eternal principle that industry wins and industry
became the beacon light of his life. His diligence and faithfulness soon gained
him recognition that resulted in promotion and after filling intermediate
positions he was elected assistant cashier of the Metropolitan Bank of
Minneapolis on the 13th of September, 1895, while in the succeeding year he was
advanced to the position of cashier. On the 8th of December, 1900, the
Northwestern National Bank, with which he had first been employed, offered him
its cashiership and he accepted, for in the larger institution he had greater
chance for advancement because of his enlarged responsibilities and duties. On
the 1st of July, 1903, he was elected vice president and general manager of the
Northwestern National Bank and was made a member of the directorate. His
election to the presidency followed on the 1st of January, 1912, and he has
remained the chief executive of the institution since that time. In the meantime
his efforts had been extended in other directions. On the 10th of May, 1910, he
had been elected president of the Minnesota Loan and Trust Company and he is now
chairman of its board of directors. He is likewise a director of the
Northwestern National Life Insurance Company and the first vice president and a
director of the Twin City Rapid Transit Company. He served several terms as
president of the Minneapolis Clearing House Association and he has been a
leading member of the Minneapolis Chamber of Commerce. In a word, his activities
have ever been of a character that have contributed to the progress and
prosperity of the community, through the advancement of its commercial,
industrial and financial interests.
On the 24th of February, 1892, Mr. Decker was united in marriage to Miss Susie
May Spaulding, a daughter of W. A. Spaulding of Minneapolis, and they have
become the parents of a son and four daughters, as follows: Edward Spaulding;
Margaret, who died in 1918; Katharine; Susan; and Elizabeth. A Congregationalist
in religious faith, Mr. Decker belongs to the Plymouth church, of which his wife
is also a faithful and earnest member. Their interests extend to all those
forces which make for the social, intellectual and moral progress of the
community and Mr. Decker belongs to the Minneapolis, Minikahda, Automobile and
Chicago clubs. He has membership in the Minneapolis Society of Fine Arts, also
in the Minnesota Society of New York and is on the Citizens Staff of John A.
Rawlins Post, G. A. R. He is a thirty-second degree Mason who has been an active
worker in the order, exemplifying in his life the beneficent spirit of the
craft. He labored most earnestly to promote the Liberty Loan, Red Cross and
other drives during the World war and served on the committees having this work
in charge. A newspaper writer has said of him: "He lives and moves and breathes
in an atmosphere of optimism. It is a part of his nature and incidentally is in
no small measure responsible for the gratifying success he has made in the
banking business. * * * To the hundreds with whom he comes in contact daily he
is always the same cheery, jovial man, radiating happiness and contentment.
Another attribute of Mr. Decker is his democracy. Having come up from the
people, he still regards himself as one of them, and it is to his immense credit
that in spite of the high position he has attained he never holds himself aloof
from the most humble. He is the most approachable of men, mixes with all classes
of citizens and is as cordial toward the poorest patron of the bank as the
wealthiest and most important." He stands as a man among men, actuated by a most
kindly spirit, by advanced principles and a lofty patriotism.