The subject of this brief sketch is a native of New York, having been born in Seneca county, July 12, 1810. When he was fourteen years old his father, Jesse Decker, moved to Michigan, settling in what is now Orion township, in 1825. Here, at the age of nineteen, Alanson married Alvira Dewey, daughter of Josiah Dewey, of Oakland township. He lived several years in what was known as the "Decker settlement," conducting a farm, but always having a strong desire to possess a home of his own.

In April, 1833, he joined the new settlement, made in Oxford township, and located land on section 8, his being the fourth family in the town. Here he has lived forty-four years, seeing the country change from a barren waste until it is regarded as fertile as any in the Union. By dint of hard work Mr. Decker has succeeded in obtaining a fine home, where he lives, at a ripe age, in easy circumstances, near the spot where his pioneer log house was first erected.

Mr. Decker has been twice married; the last time, in 1851, to Sylvia Ann Livermore. ' He has nine children living, three having died, who unite with the neighbors in honoring a man whose life was unmarked by any extraordinary event, but which was always characterized by probity and honor.