(died 29 Aug. 1929, aged 57), newspaperman. (Hector Laurin, J. Hector Laurin, J. H. Laurin, J.-H. Laurin; James Hector Laurin also found) Born at Ste-Marthe, Que. Parents: Isaac Laurin and his wife Eloise Joanette. He came to Alexandria with his parents when he was about 12 years old. In Alexandria, he attended the separate school. He learned the printing trade as an employee in the Glengarrian office, Alexandria, worked for several years in Montreal “on the leading city dailies,” returned to Alexandria in 1905, and went to Hawkesbury the next year. For many years J. H. Laurin published two Hawkesbury newspapers, the Echo in English and Le Moniteur in French. Le Moniteur began as a French-language section of the Echo in 1906, and advanced to become a newspaper in its own right in Sept. 1908. Another man from Alexandria, J. George Sabourin, was associated with him for some years, and was the co-founder of Le Moniteur. Laurin was mayor of Hawkesbury in 1919. Laurin was married to Rose Belair. In 1929, a few weeks before her father’s death, their daughter Aurore married Joseph-Omer Gour (1893-1959), MP for Russell from 1945 to 1959. Gour was a businessman at Casselman, Ont., and mayor there also, and, surprisingly, had the GC involvement of being vice-president of the North Lancaster Flax Co-Operative. J. H. Laurin died suddenly at his home in Hawkesbury. (children surviving him: 7) He was the brother of Alcide, Anthime (William), E. Leo and J. Albert Laurin of this dictionary, all of them, like himself, involved in the printing trades.

     Joseph Henri Laurin, J. H. Laurin’s son, was born in Hawkesbury, and was a captain in the Canadian Army in WWII. He published the Echo and Le Moniteur, which he acquired in 1950 from his (Joseph Henri’s) brother Eugene. He also operated a printing plant at Plantagenet. He died Jan. 1956, at the age of 40, while on vacation in Florida.

Glengarry News 30 Aug. & 6 Sept. 1929 (QF), Cornwall Freeholder 31 Aug. 1929, Henri Clément, Margaret MacMillan, and Jean-Roch Vachon, ed., Hawkesbury 1859 1984 (1984) 109-112, 446, 504 * Joseph Henri Laurin: obituary Glengarry News 19 Jan. 1956 * Brault 166 * Paul-François Sylvestre, Les journaux de l’Ontario française 1858-1983 (1984) 30