====== Courville, David M. ====== (13 Sept. 1868-26 Oct. 1958), businessman. (David Courville, D. M. Courville; he added the M. initial in his later years) Born at St-Rédempteur, near Rigaud, Que. Parents: Parents: Jean Baptiste Courville and his wife Emilie Tessier (also known as Emilie Lavigne) David Courville came to Ontario, aged about 20. He had only limited primary schooling, and as yet he had not fully learned English, in which he later became proficient. He was married, on 1 June 1891, at St. Finnan’s Cathedral, Alexandria, to Marie Mallette (b. 1868), of the Hawkesbury area. (seven children) After a long life together, she predeceased her husband by three years, dying in April 1955, aged 87. They lived at Maxville 1891-1907, Vankleek Hill 1907-1909, Alexandria 1909-1930, and then at Cornwall from 1930 till the end of their lives. His business activities before 1930 included tinsmithing and plumbing. While at Maxville, his work included roofing (including roofs of churches) and building barns. He also had a hotel at Moose Creek, which he sold in 1907. (//Glengarry News// 15 March 1907) He was an installer of furnaces, at least in churches; at this time furnaces were still rare in GC-area homes. At Vankleek Hill he was a hardware and furniture dealer. In the summer of 1909, he bought the Crystal Block in Alexandria from the Leslie family. (//GN// 6 Aug. 1909) The next year he bought the Alexandria undertaking business of George H. Kemp (//GN// 7 Jan. 1910), and within a year or 2 was an undertaker. In Alexandria, his activities included hardware store operation and general construction. In the wide variety of his business activities over the years, he conforms to a pattern set by leading Alexandria businessmen throughout pretty much the whole of the history of the town, from D. A. (Donald Sandfield) Macdonald onwards, while his own contribution was individually coloured by his driving energy. Like so many of the GC businessmen up to, but not beyond his day, he was attracted to the lumber business. He operated a lumbermill at Green Valley, for a time in partnership with Cyrille Lacombe , and later on his own. The mill was destroyed by fire in Sept. 1926 (//Glengarry News// 23 Sept. 1926) and instead of rebuilding the mill at Green Valley, David Courville bought and operated another mill at Ste-Julienne, Que., north of Montreal, establishing one of his sons as the manager. A portion of the Maxville business area was known as the Courville Block. (//GN// 14 March 1913) Likewise, Alexandria had its Courville Block, which today (2003) is still surmounted with the name “D. Courville.” In Cornwall during the 1930s, he was an undertaker. While in this occupation, he invented a new work table for embalming. Deeply interested in politics, he was a town councillor in Maxville and Alexandria, and he was mayor of Alexandria for the years 1916 and 1917, being Alexandria’s first French Canadian mayor. The mayor immediately preceding him was Dr Hope. George Simon, elected by acclamation, succeeded David Courville as mayor for 1918. (//Glengarry News// 4 Jan. 1918) David Courville was at least once again an unsuccessful candidate for the mayoralty, for the year 1921. (//GN// 7 Jan. 1921) At first a strong Liberal, David Courville served as J. E. Chevrier’s campaign manager on the Liberal side in the 1921 federal election in the Glengarry and Stormont constituency, but when the two men quarrelled over Chevrier’s defeat in the election, Courville changed parties, and was thereafter a dedicated life-long Conservative, loyally supporting his party in Alexandria and later in Cornwall. While in Alexandria, he was appointed a JP, and served for over 25 years. He died at at Cornwall, aged 90. Roman Catholic. He is buried at Ste-Justine-de-Newton, Que., near his place of birth. An intelligent , strong-minded man, not always tolerant of others and their limitations and their failings, he was a perfectionist, and it was remembered that when he got someone else to do something for him, he usually required it to be done over again till it was exactly up to his standards. His rule is said to have been that he treated others fairly, and that he expected to be treated fairly himself. In a group portrait of the Alexandria town council, 1913 (printed //Glengarry News// 12 Dec. 1984), he appears as a stern, intense man, and rather wary; he does not look like someone to whom the ill-prepared should address questions. A man of strong convictions, he seems to have clashed with the Protestants of Maxville by his interest in building a Roman Catholic church and school there, and for that reason to have decided to move to Vankleek Hill. His daughter Delphine was married to J. Albert Laurin, the long-time mayor and newspaper editor of Alexandria. Two of David Courville’s sons were dentists: (1) Cleophas (Clifford) (13 March 1898-7 May 1964), who was a dentist in B.C. He served in both World Wars, being a captain in the Canadian Army dental corps in the Second World War. He died at his home at Rossland, B. C. (2) Edmond (28 Sept. 1900-21 June 1957), for many years a dentist in Cornwall. Also, another of David Courville’s sons, Albert (17 Feb. 1902-19 Dec. 1963), graduated in medicine from McGill, and became an eye, ear, nose and throat specialist. He practised in Rumford, Maine, from about 1932, and in Albuquerque, New Mexico, from 1938. In the Second World War, he was a major in the U. S. Army Air Force Medical Corps. He died in a Montreal hospital. For David Courville and Alexandria politics about 1917, see also [[moloney_paul_j|P. J. Moloney]]. ---- Information from David Courville’s grandson, W. Laurier Courville, of Cornwall, Ont., who kindly answered my questions and allowed me to have copies of his fine biographical sketch of his grandfather, which is an elegant, sometimes severely critical portrait of a well loved ancestor, a monumental figure who awakened the admiration and love as well as the opposition from those about him * gravestone, Ste-Justine-de-Newton * //Maxville (1991) //47, 83, 295 * //Paroisse Sacré-Coeur: Souvenir 75: Livre souvenir publié à l’occasion du 75e anniversaire de fondation de la Paroisse Sacré-Coeur d’Alexandria// (1985) 4: has contract to instal heating system, 1910 * survives being lost in woods for several days on hunting trip, //Glengarry News// 20 Nov. 1931 * biog. note on careers of his sons, the dentists and physician, //Standard Freeholder// 29 Oct. 1942 * obituary of Dr A. C. Courville, //GN// 14 May 1964 * E. J. Courville graduates in dentistry, //GN// 30 May 1924 [<6>]