115 Years Ago – Dec. 1, 1903
Connected — A.L. Ireland’s house on Sweden Street was connected with the water works system during the past week.
Rig system — W.H. Theriault, liveryman, has completed a rig for the use in winter. It consists of a large sled with a “barge” built on it, with seats on either side, while the whole is disclosed under a canopy top. It will seat 16 or 18 people, is light and easily hauled, and just the thing for a party when going for a drive. The “boat” has at once fallen into popular favor and has already been on three or four trips.
100 Years Ago – Dec. 4, 1918
Restrictions — Restrictions on the sale and purchase of sugar were officially removed Wednesday. The card system has been in effect since July 1.
75 Years Ago – Dec. 1, 1943
Damage — An out-of-town alarm called firemen to the Aroostook Valley Railroad Station in New Sweden at 1:30 yesterday afternoon where they extinguished a blaze which started in a boxcar and spread into a potato house. The fire started when paper, lining the walls of the boxcar, fell on the top of an oil heater. The flames destroyed the top tier of potatoes in the car and damaged numerous other bags, and finally spread into a potato house occupied by Sands and Hanson.
Freme promoted — Ferris Freme, son of the late Herbert and Mrs. Herbert Freme of Washington Street, has recently been promoted to the rank of first lieutenant in the U.S. Army.
50 Years Ago – Dec. 4, 1968
Roar — Saturday night was the biggest in many a year for Vikings and the greatest of his young life for Quentin Blackstone, who won a standing ovation from a jam-packed auditorium for the role he played in Caribou’s 55-43 triumph over Stearns of Millinocket.
Dressed pig lost — “Tom, Tom, the piper’s son, stole a pig and away he run…,” so the nursery rhyme says. But the Caribou Police Department has a new version of it. A certain young porker parted company with an abattoir on the Washburn Road recently, and it wasn’t of his own will, because the pig had been dressed. And that doesn’t mean in clothes, although he was well dressed, split right down the middle. In this instance, the pig didn’t leave under anyone’s arm and his abductor didn’t run (technically speaking, at least). Evidence is that this pig left the premises propelled by snow sled. Fresh snow showed where the carcass had been dragged from the abattoir across the Washburn Road, but so many snow sled tracks were found there, that track of the pig was lost. No one has squealed, least of all the pig, so the case of the missing porker remains unsolved.
25 Years Ago – Dec. 1, 1993
Rejects public hearing — The Caribou City Council has rejected a motion to hold a public hearing before making a final decision on the proposed consolidation between the Cary Medical Center and The Aroostook Medical Center council in a 4-2 vote with councilors Richard Fortier and Roy Doak opposing. Doak said that many people, who had supported the merger on the referendum vote a year ago, had called him and said they now wanted to change their minds.
Recognized — Wilda B. Hutcheon of Caribou is one of a select group of outstanding women representing Maine to be selected for the American Biographical Institute honors list recognizing “most admired men and women of the year.” Mrs. Hutcheon is presently exhibiting “Autumn Tapestry II,” an original oil, in the fireplace room of the library. She is a member of the Caribou Garden Club.
