LOUIS L'AMOUR
he man who would become Louis L'Amour grew up in the fading days of the American
frontier. He was born Louis Dearborn LaMoore on March 22, 1908, the last of
seven children in the family of Dr. Louis Charles LaMoore and Emily Dearborn
LaMoore. His home, for the first fifteen years of his life, was Jamestown, North
Dakota, a medium sized farming community situated in the valley where Pipestem
Creek flows into the James River. Doctor LaMoore was a large animal veterinarian
who came to Dakota Territory in 1882. As times changed he also sold farm
machinery, bossed harvesting crews, and held several positions in city and state
government.
Though the land around Jamestown was mostly given to farming, Louis and his
older brothers often met cowboys as they came through on the Northern Pacific
Railroad, traveling to market with stockcars full of cattle or returning to
their ranches in the western part of the North Dakota or Montana. For awhile Dr.
L.C. LaMoore was a state Livestock Inspector, a post that required him to
certify the health of all the cattle that came through the Jamestown area.
When Louis was very young his grandfather, Abraham Truman Dearborn, came to live
in a little house just in back of the LaMoore's. He told Louis of the great
battles in history and of his own experiences as a soldier in both the civil and
Indian wars. Two of Louis' uncles had worked on ranches for many years, one as a
manager and the other as an itinerate cowboy. It was in the company of men such
as these that Louis was first exposed to the history and adventure of the
American Frontier.
Louis at 12 years old.
Though the LaMoore household had a modest collection of books, it was at the
nearby Alfred Dickey Free Library, where his eldest sister, Edna, was a
librarian, that Louis spent many long hours exploring in depth subjects only
touched on by the schools. He expanded his education by studying far afield of
the local curriculum. In addition to the non-fiction study of history and the
natural sciences, Louis was captivated by the fiction of Robert Louis Stevenson,
Jack London, Edgar Rice Burroughs and others ... letting them carry him away to
the south seas, the gold fields of the Yukon, the Spanish Main, the center of
the earth and the dying red planet of Mars.
By the beginning of the 1920s Louis and his adopted brother John were the only
children left in the LaMoore household. Edna, had moved away to pursue a career
as a schoolteacher. His eldest brother, Parker, was on his way to becoming a
successful newspaperman and political aid. Second brother, Yale, managed a
grocery store where John and Louis occasionally worked. The twins, Clara and
Clarice, had died while infants and his beloved sister Emmy Lou had succumbed to
the 1918 epidemic of Spanish influenza.
he man who would become Louis L'Amour grew up in the fading days of the American
frontier. He was born Louis Dearborn LaMoore on March 22, 1908, the last of
seven children in the family of Dr. Louis Charles LaMoore and Emily Dearborn
LaMoore. His home, for the first fifteen years of his life, was Jamestown, North
Dakota, a medium sized farming community situated in the valley where Pipestem
Creek flows into the James River. Doctor LaMoore was a large animal veterinarian
who came to Dakota Territory in 1882. As times changed he also sold farm
machinery, bossed harvesting crews, and held several positions in city and state
government.
Though the land around Jamestown was mostly given to farming, Louis and his
older brothers often met cowboys as they came through on the Northern Pacific
Railroad, traveling to market with stockcars full of cattle or returning to
their ranches in the western part of the North Dakota or Montana. For awhile Dr.
L.C. LaMoore was a state Livestock Inspector, a post that required him to
certify the health of all the cattle that came through the Jamestown area.
When Louis was very young his grandfather, Abraham Truman Dearborn, came to live
in a little house just in back of the LaMoore's. He told Louis of the great
battles in history and of his own experiences as a soldier in both the civil and
Indian wars. Two of Louis' uncles had worked on ranches for many years, one as a
manager and the other as an itinerate cowboy. It was in the company of men such
as these that Louis was first exposed to the history and adventure of the
American Frontier.
Louis at 12 years old.
Though the LaMoore household had a modest collection of books, it was at the
nearby Alfred Dickey Free Library, where his eldest sister, Edna, was a
librarian, that Louis spent many long hours exploring in depth subjects only
touched on by the schools. He expanded his education by studying far afield of
the local curriculum. In addition to the non-fiction study of history and the
natural sciences, Louis was captivated by the fiction of Robert Louis Stevenson,
Jack London, Edgar Rice Burroughs and others ... letting them carry him away to
the south seas, the gold fields of the Yukon, the Spanish Main, the center of
the earth and the dying red planet of Mars.
By the beginning of the 1920s Louis and his adopted brother John were the only
children left in the LaMoore household. Edna, had moved away to pursue a career
as a schoolteacher. His eldest brother, Parker, was on his way to becoming a
successful newspaperman and political aid. Second brother, Yale, managed a
grocery store where John and Louis occasionally worked. The twins, Clara and
Clarice, had died while infants and his beloved sister Emmy Lou had succumbed to
the 1918 epidemic of Spanish influenza.