(died 2 Feb.1943, aged 72), businessman. (C. Lacombe) Born at Ste-Justine-de-Newton, Que. Parents: Mr and Mrs Hyacinth Lacombe. As a young man he farmed and was a sawmill employee at Glen Robertson. He came to Alexandria in 1909 and opened a sawmill near the railway station there in association with D. Filion, and within a few years was the sole owner of the mill. About 20 years before his death Lacombe changed the name of his sawmill firm to Alexandria Broom Handle Works. By early 1922, his factory was shipping a carload of broom handles per day. (Glengarry News 17 Feb. 1922) In early 1936, it was noted that he had completed trucking in more than 1300 logs from a bush at Glen Robertson. (GN 24 Jan. 1936) The Alexandria Broom Handle Works was destroyed by fire on 19 August 1942, with a loss Lacombe estimated at $60,000. (GN 21 Aug. 1942) His obituary (GN) stated that since the fire “the plant had been running on a small scale awaiting rebuilding this spring.” Cyrille Lacombe died after some months of illness. He was married to Janet Gendron of Alexandria. (five children surviving him). Two others of their children had been killed in a fire in 1925. (GN 27 Feb. 1925) He belonged to Sacred Heart Parish.

     His firm was valued by an Alexandria hard hit by the closing of Munro & McIntosh and by the Depression, and contributed to a farm economy still supplemented by bush work. As his advertisements in the Glengarry News show, he bought logs from the farmers for his business. Annual hunting trips gave him valued recreation. He does not seem to have been attracted to party politics, but he served “many terms” as public utilities commissioner in Alexandria. The 1941 season’s greetings of Alexandria Broom Handle Works, signed C. Lacombe and printed as an advertisement in the Glengarry News, stated “As the year 1941 draws to a close with its worries and uncertainties, its bitterness and strife, we wish to return thanks to the Public in general for their Patronage, and to wish all, not only a Merry Christmas and A Happy New Year, but a year that will exceed in joy, and fruitfulness any yet experienced.” (Glengarry News 26 Dec. 1941) See also David Courville.

GN 5 Feb. 1943 * advertisements, GN 19 & 26 Dec. 1941