115 Years Ago-Feb. 9, 1898
• Bert Laffaty, the pulp wood contractor, has shipped 700 cords to Madison and Orono; the price paid is $2 per cord, delivered at the station.
• Mrs. Florence Porter and Mrs. E. P. Grimes, president and corresponding secretary of the Maine Federation of Women’s Clubs, returned Tuesday after attending a meeting in Bangor.
100 Years Ago-Feb. 5, 1914
• Coffin District news — Lewie Hathaway is working for Prim Raymond at present. Mr. Will Bull of Mapleton was in this place last Wednesday looking for a housekeeper; Mrs. Jennie Hathaway returned with him. Jim Gammon took a trip to Collins’ camp last Sunday. “Jim did not get lost but his mittens did.” No more woods for him.
• Prime lots for sale — The advertisement reads: “For Sale, 20 lots on Broadway between the roundhouse and the brook. These lots are located on either side of Broadway and in a location now occupied by some very pleasant homes. I will sell these lots for $300 each, with a payment of $50 down and the balance in annual payments of $50 each. Caribou Public Market, Frank Riley, Prop., two phones- 204-3 and 223.”
75 Years Ago-Feb. 9, 1939
• Brown trout featured at show — Brown trout are new in this section of the state and many of Aroostook’s sportsmen are anxiously waiting to see them. Levi Dow, chief warden of Aroostook, informed the carnival committee that materials for the State of Maine booth for the Aroostook Sportsmen’s Show arrived in Caribou. This year the State exhibit will be nearly twice as large with many new features, in particular, the display of fine brown trout along with brook trout and land-locked salmon.
• Potato varieties in demand — In response to general interest in Chippewa seed stock, the Experiment Station is offering for sale about 1,200 barrels. Samples were included in the Florida test and readings indicate about 2.5 percent leaf roll and no mosaic. Attempts by the USDA and the Maine Agricultural Experiment Station to develop a potato that is resistant to late blight or rust and tuber rot, have resulted in the production of a new seedling recently named Sebago. The new variety originated as a cross between the Katahdin and Chippewa varieties.
50 Years Ago-Feb. 6, 1964
• Boosting the band — Hayes Gahagan, general chairman, reports all is in readiness for the public baked bean supper and auction at the Caribou Junior High School gymnasium tonight — a fund raising project of the Music Parents Association of Caribou with proceeds earmarked for the purchase of band uniforms, band equipment and chorus robes. Mrs. Mark Cochran, Mrs. Dale Olmstead and Mrs. Olin Thompson are in charge of the supper. Working with Gahagan on this project have been John Doyle, Phil Harmon, John Cyr, Bob McCarthy, “Micky” Carter, Phil Brown, Jim Briggs and Cecil Lister.
• Three-mill increase proposed — A three-mill increase in the Caribou tax rate is possible this year, Town Manager Charles D. Hatch reported this week. He said that if the town budget, as now proposed, is approved by the Budget Committee and at the Town Meeting, the mill rate will jump from 26 to 29. Accounting for about two and a half mills is the possible increase in the school budget which, as proposed, is up $101,166 over last year.
25 Years Ago-Feb. 8, 1989
• Washburn pursues agricultural museum — With their phenomenally successful Wilder Farmstead Museum on its own two feet, so to speak, the Salmon Brook Historical Society of Washburn is taking another step to preserve Aroostook County’s heritage. A desire to sustain the area’s farming history has sparked members’ plans for an Aroostook County Agricultural Museum, to take shape in the form of a barn behind the existing facility. Members have just begun an ambitious fund drive to raise the project’s estimated $50,000 cost.
• At the movies — A mix of drama, suspense and comedy this week at the Caribou Cinema Center: Working Girl with Melanie Griffith and Harrison Ford; Physical Evidence starring Burt Reynolds; Leslie Nielson and Ricardo Montalban in The Naked Gun; and Dirty Rotten Scoundrels featuring Steve Martin and Michael Caine.
