Compiled By Barbara Scott
Staff Writer
100 Years Ago: Sept. 1, 1909
• The quarantine on public gatherings, meeting, entertainments, etc. has not been raised yet by the Board of Health, but it is though they will do so this week and that the churches may resume regular services next week. The diphtheria seems to be well under control and there are fewer cases than last week. No more deaths have been reported and the patients are all on the road to recovery.
Sept. 1, 1960 — This was a typical scene in Caribou after a twister ripped through the town Monday evening. The storm struck suddenly with driving rain, reducing visibility to a few feet. This Collins Street home escaped damage, but an up-rooted tree on York St. clipped a corner of a house when it fell.
• Corydon Powers has returned from Lewiston where he was in attendance at the reunion of the 5th Maine Battery — the battery which won its greatest laurels at Gettysburg.
• A.G. Vose, the manager of the telephone company has been in Frenchville this week, installing a new telephone exchange.
• Willie Crandall has accepted a position in Shaw and Mitton’s grocery store.
• There is no question that the grain crop is going to prove a big one and the weather so far has been ideal for harvesting. Milton Lufkin threshed one load of oats this week from which he secured 76 bushels of grain.
• George N. Cochrane has purchased the H.L. Cates house on Bridge Street.
75 Years Ago: Aug. 29, 1935
• An airplane accident quite out of the ordinary took place at the Caribou Airport Saturday when a young tornado, described as a real ‘twister’ caught up the Junior Curtis plane, owned by Donald Anderson, lifted it well into the air, turned it over two or three times and deposited it on the other side of the wire fence just south of the hangar.
• All signs point to a record attendance at the Northern Maine Fair, which is celebrating its 85th anniversary next week, Sept. 2-5 at Presque Isle.
• Aroostook will come the nearest this year to failure in its potato crops, the general opinion being that the yield will be only 50 or 60 barrels to the acre. The growing season has been a peculiar and disappointing one. Not in many years have the farmers recalled so much rain and so much dry weather, the rain coming early in the season at a time when it washed the fertilizer from the fields, followed by the recent extremely dry spell. Extravagant rumors that shippers are being offered from $1 to $1.25 per barrel the past two or three days seem to be unfounded. Only a few are being dug and shipped, and there apparently is little demand at the present time. The actual figures for prices seem to be around 50 cents per barrel.
• The Fox Siding dance pavilion was dismantled last week. It is understood that a potato warehouse is to be erected upon the site.
• Herbert Kelley, popular driver of RFD No2, out of this post office, has been enjoying his annual vacation. As a part of the holiday he attended the convention of rural mail carriers in Boston.
• The celebration of the 40th anniversary of the First Universalist Church will be held the weekend of Sept. 7-8. Plans for the 40th anniversary have been made by the following committee members: Mrs. Bertha Spaulding, chairman; Mrs. Sara Briggs, Mrs. Mary Lou Brown, Mrs. Zella Denton, L.H. Denton, Mrs. Nellie King, Mrs. Lora Sincock, C.A. Stetson; ex-officio S.W. Collins and Rev. and Mrs. G. Douglas Frazier. A most interesting history of the church has been written by Mrs. W. E. Sincock and is now in production at the Republican office.
50 Years Ago: Sept. 1, 1960
• A number of planes were damaged at the Caribou Airport in Monday’s storm and one owned by Ray Leighton of Limestone was declared a total wreck. One other plane was saved from serious damage by Terrence Sinclair, 17, who risked injury to himself with his efforts. While other aircraft were being torn from the ground posts to which they were strapped, Sinclair reportedly ran through the 80-mile-an-hour wind and into the Civil Air Patrol plane. During the height of the storm he manipulated the controls of the plane, managing to keep it on the ground despite the extremely high wind.
• Miss Jane Briggs and here mother Mrs. Parkin Briggs, entertained at a morning coffee. Miss Briggs who studied in Austria this past school year, was dressed in the native costume and the refreshments were Australian.
• Adrian Carlstrom, son of Mrs. Edythe Carlstrom is at Fort Devens, Massachusetts, for two weeks of Army training as an Army reservist specialist.
• Perley White of Caribou and Aroostook Valley Country Club entries in the Maritime Seniors Golf Tournament at Digby, Nova Scotia, this week with rounds of 87 and 88 for a total score of 1775.
• Plans for a monster demonstration welcoming Sen. John F. Kennedy to Aroostook Friday afternoon were completed at a meeting of the Caribou Democratic Town Committee Tuesday night when James Whelan of the presidential candidate’s Washington staff was in attendance.
• The Maine School of Practical Nurses graduated 22 students at commencement exercises, Aug. 28 in Weiden Hall, at the Aroostook State Teachers College in Presque Isle.
