From our Files: Headlines from 100 years of local news

Compiled by Karen Donato
Special to the Pioneer Times
100 Years Ago-March 13, 1912
Aroostook Times
    Local — Last week while driving on the ice just below the race track, a wild duck was seen swimming about in some open water along the shores, as unconcerned about the temperatures as though it were the good old summertime.
    Updating — Leighton & Feeley have recently installed a soda fountain of the very latest type, embracing every up-to-date feature now in use.
    New building — McCluskey Bros. are building a storehouse on Military Street on the site of the old garage, to be used for the display of wagons and carriages.
75 Years Ago-March 18, 1937
Houlton Pioneer Times
    Town budget — Voters raised $208,766 at the annual town meeting. $70,000 was designated for education and $250 for the school nurse.
    Linneus — A hen on the farm of H.J. Good apparently is not aware of the fact that eggs are selling for only 30 cents a dozen for Mr. Good found an egg which measures seven inches in circumference and eight and a half inches in circumference lengthwise. But that is only part of the story. Another egg of about the normal size was inside the larger — shell and all. The shells of both eggs were unusually thin. Mr. Good believes it was laid by a Wyandotte. The double egg is on display in the window of the Houlton Meat Supply.
    Potatoes — A peck of fancy Maine potatoes is en-route to the Chief Executives of the 47 states, the gift of Governor Lewis O. Barrows. Accompanying the gift boxes of tubers, each of which was wrapped in cellophane and nestled in a layer of decorative trimming paper, was a Maine cookbook, a pamphlet on the Maine potato industry and a letter from Governor Barrows.
50 Years Ago- March 15, 1962
Houlton Pioneer Times
    Teachers — The Houlton school board has set the salary scale for the upcoming year as $5,014. This is equivalent to $139.28 per week for a 36-week school year.
    Stamps — The sale of four-cent Project Mercury stamp has created the most interest and demand in the nine years Postmaster Leo Spain has been head of the local post office.
    Vending machine — Carl F. Hagan, a Cary’s Mills potato grower has developed a small wooden structure that dispenses peck bags of quality potatoes at 50 cents a bag to motorists and area residents. Hagan has set this 10-foot by 12-foot unit in Old Town at a service station yard. Buyers insert the proper change in the coin slots which energize the motor releasing a bag of potatoes through an opening.
25 Years Ago-March 18, 1987
Houlton Pioneer Times
    Russia — Barbara Nagle and Jared Fitzpatrick, students at Houlton High School have been selected to represent their school and the State of Maine as Student Ambassadors for the Initiative for Understanding Project, an American-Soviet Youth Exchange program.
Houlton Pioneer Times 1987 File Photo
VOLUNTEERS — Comprising the volunteer crew at Cary Library are from left, Herbie Hockenhull, Jane Million, Valerie Gove, Carol Flynn, Helen Smith and Dot Burnham.
    Candidate — Candidates for Houlton High School Queen have been selected by each class and include, Lynette Gallop from the senior class, Tonya Cheney, a member of the junior class. Kinette Henderson of the sophomore class and Jennifer Fitzpatrick of the freshman class.
    Donation — The Moosehead Furniture Co. recently donated six pieces of furniture to the Houlton Information Center. The furniture was provided through Dunn Furniture Company.