HISTORY/BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH: | Joseph Lamoureux was born on February 9, 1838 in Saint-Georges d'Iberville, Quebec to Francois Lamoureux and Marguerite Therien. In September 1855 he married Marie Provost and they moved to Kankakee, Illinois, USA. In ca. 1860 Marie Lamoureux inherited her mother's farm in Henryville, Quebec so the family moved back to Quebec. By ca. 1866 Joseph Lamoureux travelled west and joined a convoy travelling along the Oregon Trail its way to the Pacific Coast. At the end of the trail he unexpectedly met his brother François (Frank) and together they travelled to what is today Alberta, just north of Fort Saskatchewan, on the other side of the river, arriving in 1872. By the spring of 1873 Joseph Lamoureux brought his five children, Alcibiade, Eveline, Alphonse, Israel, and Zelia with her husband Theophile Lamoureux, his wife Marie, and his two brothers Moise and Amable, to Saint-Boniface, Manitoba. The following spring most of the family arrived at the farm close to Fort Saskatchewan, where son Arthur was born in 1879.
Zelia Lamoureux married Theophile Lamoureux who was born on August 15, 1852 to Albert Lamoureux and Domithilde Molleur. Together they traveled with Joseph Lamoureux, arriving at Saint-Boniface, Manitoba and settling ca. 1874 north of what is today Fort Saskatchewan. They had six children: Stanislas, Corinne, Hormidas, Eugene, Evelyne, and Oscar. After the death of his wife, Theophile married Otilia Gaumont who had four children from a previous marriage, Bertha, Romeo, Leo, and Flora.
Eveline married Choiseul Eleazar del la Gorgendiere, Alphonse married Laura Chevigny, and Alcibiade married Lumina Poirier and had seven children, Aurelia, Delia, Philodore, Rose-Anna, George Edmond, Blanche-Antoinette and Bertha-Laura.
Joseph Lamoureux and his brother Frank entered into a partnership to build and operate a sawmill and Joseph bought a sternwheeler called The Minnow to carry freight along the river. Joseph Lamoureux died December 13, 1907 and his son Arthur took over the farm. Arthur died on December 5, 1955.
Frank Lamoureux was married January 12, 1874 to Marie Sauvé whose father was employed at the Hudson's Bay Company at Fort Edmonton. In addition to working in a partnership with his brother Joseph at the sawmill, he was also a church trustee and the first school trustee in the area. He and his wife had ten children, Marie-Rose, Caroline, Anne, Edouard, Josephine, Antoinette, Francois, Adelaide, Alice and Marie-Louise. Frank Lamoureux died on November 1, 1906.
Amable Lamoureux, brother of Joseph Lamoureux, was born on May 7, 1844. After his wife Celina Bissonnette died, Amable moved west with his brother Moise and the family of Joseph Lamoureux. He married Mary Poirier and together they had thirteen children. The family moved to Alberta in 1885, where Amable was one of the planners of Le Creusot School District in 1891. He died on October 12, 1913.
Francois Lamoureux and Theophile Lamoureux were the first trustees, along with James Reid, of the Fort Saskatchewan's Roman Catholic Public School District No. 2, and Olivia Lamoureux was a teacher there from 1885-1891. |