#beauce county

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“Hold Canadian,” Toronto Star. March 16, 1932. Page 21. ---- Quebec, March 16. - Francois Lachance, French-Canadian, from Beauce, was arrested by Lewiston police in connection with the murder of Eldridge Jacques, taxi driver of the American town, following a lengthy search in Quebec.

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‘Les érables,” La Gazette du Nord. April 21, 1939. Page 4. ---- St-Joseph, Beauce.—Si la température se continue, les sucriers de la Beauce feront des affaires d’or. Depuis, hier matin, les érables coulent en abondance et la sève est particulièrement riche en sucre. Aujourd’hui, la journée s’annonce pour être également très favorable

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“Matches As Toys Set Town Aflame,” Toronto Globe. June 8, 1931. Page 01. ---- 32 Buildings Destroyed and Others Damaged in Quebec ---- (Canadian Press Despatch.) St. Victor de Tring, Beauce County, Que., June 7. - Fire which swept this town Saturday completely destroyed 32 buildings and damaged two others. Caused by a child playing with matches in a woodshed, the blaze, fanned by a brisk west wind, quickly spread to the adjoining Hotel Poulin and the house of J. Carrier while the lad hid in some bushes for fear of punishment. He was missed only after the excitement caused by the fire had died down. Persistent questioning brought a tearful confession.

The fire is estimated to have caused damage of about $300,000. It raged through the commercial centre of the town with very little chick, as the townsmen had insufficient firefighting apparatus. Every man fought the fire, which became particularly stubborn when it reached the church. Little damage was done to to that edifice, although a convent belonging to the Sisters of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary, the local branch of the Banque Canadienne Nationale and several stores are now heaps of ruins.

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“Man and Bride Held in Poisoning,” Ottawa Citizen. November 29, 1937. Page 01. ---- Man and Bride Held in Poisoning ---- ST. METHODE, Que., Nov. 29. - Achille Grondin and his bride of little more than a month were found by a coroner’s jury today to have been ‘criminally responsible’ for the death of the woman’s first husband, Vilmont Brochu, who died of arsenic poisoning. The couple, detained in jail on a coroner’s warrant, were married 40 days after Brochu, a 32-year-old taxi driver, died here Aug. 16 of arsenic poisoning. The inquest was opened last week but adjourned to permit further inquiry by provincial police who exhumed the body on orders from the Attorney-General’s Department a month ago. Internal organs were sent to Montreal for examination and analysis, and Dr. J. M. Roussel, medico-legal expert, told the jury he had found arsenic in the viscera sufficient to cause ‘violent death.’ Members of Brochu’s family appealed to the Attorney-General’s Department and asked that police be sent to investigate his death. Immediately after police investigation and the examination by Dr. Roussel, Grondin and the 35-year-old widow were taken into custody as ‘important witnesses’ and were ordered detained in jail at nearby St. Joseph de Beauce, about 35 miles southeast of Quebec City.

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“Newlyweds Committed On Murder Charge,” Ottawa Citizen. December 3, 1937. Page 04. --- Associated Press. ST. JOSEPH DE BEAUCE, Que., Dec. 3.  - Achille Grondin and his bride of a few weeks were committed today by Magistrate J. S. Couture to trial next January on murder charges arising from the death of Mrs. Grondin’s first husband from poisoning. The 42-year-old St. Methode farmer and the woman he married just 40 days after Villemond Brochu’s death were charged with murder Tuesday. A few hours earlier a coroner’s report told of arsenic traces in Brochu’s exhumed body. The preliminary hearing began yesterday. In the little courtroom, crowded with French-Canadian farmers, the couple sat together in the prisoner’s box as witnesses told of domestic troubles, ‘spells’ the woman’s taxi-driver husband cast on Grondin and ‘counter-curses’ invoked by the farmer. Later, Grondin and his bride were taken to the nearby county jail where they have been detained since a coroner’s inquest into Brochu’s death was ordered two weeks ago. The jury held them criminally responsible.

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“Tale of Backwoods Witchcraft Stirs Country Courtroom,” Ottawa Citizen. December 4, 1937. Page 10. ---- Canadian Press. --- ST. JOSEPH DE BEAUCE, Que., Dec. 3 – A weird tale of backwoods witchcraft was unfolded today before Magistrate J. S. Couture, who later sent Achile Grondin and his dark-eyed bride to trial on murder charges arising from the death of the woman’s first husband. Farmers who parked the little county court room shifted uneasily as ‘spells’ induced by the writing of ‘magic words,’ were described by witnesses at the brief preliminary inquiry into the charges, laid after an autopsy disclosed traces of arsenic in the exhumed body of 32-year-old Villemond Brochu. Huddled together in the prisoners’ box, the flaxen-haired farmers and his bride of a weeks heard Adolphe Gilbert tell of Grondin’s request for assistance to increase the power of a ‘spell’ upon the taxi-driver. ‘Magic Paper.’ ‘Grondon,’ Gilbert told the court, ‘came to me and asked to come in on this.’ He showed me his magic paper and I took it home with me and copied it down. It was a spell against Villemond Brochy and Grondin believed it would be more powerful if we both worked it together.’ Mrs. Edmond Roy of Magog, with whom Mrs. Brochu lived a few weeks before Villemond’s death August 16, said the accused woman told her she had been informed by a fortune-teller that she was to ‘marry a fair man before long.’ Later, Mrs. Brochu told Mrs. Roy Grondin was the ‘fair man’ about whom the fortune[teller had spoken. Witness said she knew the 32-year-old taxi-driver and last New Years after a party at the Grondin farm home, Brochu complaining of illness, said ‘they tried to poison me.’ Brochu died after several weeks of illness during which he suffered severe stomach pains and was treated by a doctor who found the ailment not unusual ‘but which affected him (Brochu) in a strange way.’