From our Files: Headlines from 100 years of local news

Compiled by Karen Donato
Special to the Pioneer Times
100 Years Ago-Oct. 25, 1911
Aroostook Times
    Local — The large amount of money paid to farmers since digging commenced is now being well circulated with the result that Aroostook County is the busiest and most prosperous part of our good old state at the present time.
    East Hodgdon — Fred Alexander has sold his farm to Herbert London.
    Sports — Houlton High School and Ricker Classical Institute met on the gridiron for the first game of football and neither side was able to score.
75 Years Ago-Oct. 22, 1936
Houlton Pioneer Times
    Modern hunter — When a man hits a deer, that’s marksmanship; but when a deer hits a man, that’s news! Those nimrods who have tread the forest paths for hours at a time to no avail, should appreciate the irony in the following yarn. Late yesterday afternoon, shortly after dark, Fred Putnam was driving his coupe through Orient on the way to Danforth. As he was riding up a steep hill through the woods, two deer, a fawn and a 2-year-old doe, suddenly sprang out of the underbrush at his right. The fawn managed to cross the road in front of the car, but the doe jumped head-on into the radiator between the lights, breaking its neck. A sizeable dent is in the radiator and the glass is missing from one headlight, but Mr. Putnam has a good-sized deer in his possession.
50 Years Ago-Oct. 26, 1961
Houlton Pioneer Times
    Grocery store — The Milliken-Tomilson Co., IGA distributors for the state of Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont have announced the appointment of the Riley brothers, Clayton and Gerald, present owners of the C&G Market as new proprietors of the IGA Super Foodliner. It will be the second largest IGA store in the state.
Houlton Pioneer Times 1961 File Photo
ENTERTAINERS — Stars of television, Don Messer and Charlie Chamberlain paid a visit to Houlton recently. The pair were appearing in the Old Home Week program at Woodstock, N.B. The entertainers are seen weekly on St. John TV.
    Harvest income — Houlton’s public school children earned a record $116,253 in the recent potato harvest. Total for the four schools in this area, $158,000. Estimated barrels picked by school labor is about 600,000, all worth 25 cents each to the various pickers.
    New officer — Alvin Delong, 22 of Houlton, a six-foot-one, 195-pound veteran of the armed forces has joined the Houlton Police Department.
    Entertains — Mr. and Mrs. Paul Coleman entertained at their home on Lincoln Street preceding the Hayseed Ball at the Elks. Other Houlton couples entertaining friends were: Mr. and Mrs. Gary Dwyer, Mr. and Mrs. James Ward, Mr. and Mrs. J. Willard Hovey, Mr. and Mrs. Carl Gray and Mr. and Mrs. Ervin Stone.
25 Years Ago-Oct. 22, 1986
Houlton Pioneer Times
    Dyer Brook — Fourteen cars of a southbound Bangor and Aroostook freight train were derailed at Dyer Brook. The derailment tore up 390 feet of track.
    Slide show — This past summer Judy Bielecki, her daughter Dee Dee and other friends of Samantha Smith joined Jane Smith on a trip to the Soviet Union. The Bieleckis presented a slide show of the trip to the public.
    Musical — The Houlton High Music Department will present the musical “South Pacific” in December and “Cabaret” in the spring.
    Downtown — Keith French of Keith French Associates in Portland will be in Houlton for meetings to discuss and present a design for the downtown revitalization project.