Iowa Families:

The Myths and Legends

~ She Fought Back ~

By LeAnn Wright

     This story is about my ggg grandmother, Ann Noah LaMoure.  She was born May 4, 1837,in Decatur Co., Indiana, and died June 6, 1892 in Dysart, Tama Co., Iowa.  I believe she would be buried with the last name of Griffith, as she remarried after the Indians killed her husband, my ggg grandfather, Edward Byron LaMoure.

The following is a description of an article taken from “The Farmitage”, Elk Point, SD. Four people were making hay one half mile south of River Sioux Park crossing, in the harvest moon in 1865. A band of  Indians set upon them killing Ed LaMoureaux  and wounding Julius Fletcher. Tom Watson was not hurt. Mrs. LaMoureaux was the person the Indians had to contend with, she wielded her fork proficiently enough, she left some of them with stab wounds. Fletcher had a bit of a reputation like he could survive a cave full of bears. Watson may have run or hid in order to survive, suffering neither injury nor death. The leader of the band of Indians said to let her live because of her bravery. The account said when they became too much for her she laid down on the hay. They did not harm her, but they did take her horses then and leave. Edward Byron LaMoure is said to be buried in an unmarked grave at Elk Point, South Dakota, near where he was killed.

There was a reference to this Indian attack in an article by Dr. Nancy McCahren on French Settlers, 1988. (as follows) "Those French who crossed the Missouri River and came to South Dakota first settled in southern Union and Clay Counties. Among the early settlers in Jefferson, Elk Point, and Civil Bend Townships, all in Union County, were the families of Albert LaBrune, Alexander Duhaime, Marc Chicoine, David Remillard, R. J. Authier, Charles LaBreche, Philippe Beauchemin, Joseph Yerter, Clement Guillaume, Abraham Chaussee, Charles LeMoges, and the LeMeres. All were farmers; Charles LaBreche owned 1,100 acres, and was cited by one early biographer as "probably the most prominent French-American citizen living in Union County." In the fall of 1862, the same year Mr. LaBreche and seven other French Canadian families settled in Union County, the Indians became restless and hostile, and settlers were compelled to get away from the locality or suffer the consequences. While Mr. LaBreche and his party were passing over Brule Creek near Richland on their way to Sioux Falls with government supplies, the Indians were seen to attack a Mr. LaMoure and Tom Watson. Although they had no firearms with them, nor weapons, Mr. LaBreche, Joseph Yerter, Francis Bertrand and Vincent LaBelle started to rescue their unfortunate neighbors. Watson had been wounded, and it was Charles LaBreche who found Mr. LaMoure's body and carried it to a nearby house before he continued his safe journey to Sioux Falls."