Decatur was born in
Sussex County, New Jersey, They both attended
Williams College during the 1830s, and roomed together. William also later went West, settling in
Chicago, Illinois. He was later active in the
Republican Party and elected as
lieutenant governor. Stephen became a schoolteacher under the name Stephen Decatur Bross in New Jersey and New York. In the early 1840s he suddenly disappeared, abandoning his wife and two children. He next surfaced in
Nebraska Territory, where he used the name
Stephen Decatur. While on the Nebraska frontier, he served in the
Mexican–American War. Later Decatur worked as a clerk at the trading post of Colonel
Peter Sarpy, who had numerous posts in Nebraska affiliated with the
American Fur Company. The one in Decatur opened in 1854. Sarpy was also important to early Nebraska development, attracting residents and settlement near such posts. In 1854 Decatur was a candidate to serve in Nebraska's First Territorial Assembly, but he was not seated. He has been described as a "highly educated man who claimed he was a nephew of Commodore
Stephen Decatur, Naval hero of the
War of 1812." The town of
Decatur, Nebraska, was incorporated in 1856 under the name "The Decatur Townsite & Ferry Company." The other incorporators included Thomas Whiteacre, T. H. Hineman, George Mason, and Herman Glass. The patents for the town were granted by the legislatureon May 1, 1862. In Nebraska Decatur married again. In 1859 he moved to the
Colorado Territory to work in the gold fields, leaving behind his second wife and their child. During the
American Civil War, he enlisted in the
3rd Colorado Regiment. After the war he remained in Colorado, including a stint in
Georgetown, where he published the Georgetown
Miner. Soon he moved to
Summit County, Colorado, which he represented in the territorial legislature from 1866 to 1868. He died June 5, 1888, in
Rosita, Colorado, a small camp in the
Sangre de Cristo Mountains. His age at death was estimated to be 80. He is buried in Rosita Cemetery in
Custer County, Colorado. ==References==