Within a few months after James, her husband, was wounded at the Lone Jack Fight and his death that soon followed at the hospital in Lexington, Missouri, Louisa was left alone with two small little girls. She lived in Douglas County, Missouri at either Benton or Washington Township, and she had to ride a horse side saddle all the way to Springfield, Greene County, Missouri, to get the pension papers prepared after his death.  Louisa was a small woman and it is told that because she was afraid she would be robbed, that when she started getting the pension money that she would hid it behind a large picture hanging in her front room.