Caribou area From our Files (week of January 23, 2019)

5 years ago

115 Years Ago – Jan. 26,  1904

Cold The thermometer registered 38 degrees below zero in several places in this town early this morning.

Finishing up D.M. Armstrong will finish next week numbering the houses and business places in Caribou.  He has numbered about 350 houses and stores and put about 80 name plates on residences.

100 Years Ago – Jan. 29, 1919

Visit O.B. Griffin, president, and G.V. Brown, secretary of the Aroostook Federation of Farmers, and J.L. Scribner of Presque Isle attended the meeting of the North Aroostook Pomona Grange at Monticello last week.

75 Years Ago – Jan. 26, 1944

K of C raises $50 — The Caribou Council of the Knights of Columbus collected the sum of $50.00 for victims of infantile paralysis at their monthly business meeting held here last Wednesday night.  At the business meeting opened by Grand Knight John Beaupre the Knights also voted to buy a $100 War Bond and to canvass the town for the names of all men serving in the armed forces for the Caribou Honor Roll, which will soon be placed on the Library lawn.

Promoted — Lt. Sylvio T. Cyr, formerly of Caribou, was promoted to the grade of full lieutenant in the U.S. Navy recently somewhere on the high seas.  Cyr, who had a dentist practice in Caribou for eight years, entered the Navy on Dec. 1, 1942. Dr. Cyr plans to resume his practice in Caribou after the war.

50 Years Ago – Jan. 29, 1969

Robbery — In excess of $100 was believed taken in a nighttime break into the Crossroads Restaurant at the intersection of Route 89 and East Gate Road in Limestone.  Acting Police Chief Ronald Sheridan of Limestone said the break was discovered at about 8:30 Monday morning by Ligorie Saucier, proprietor, when he went to work.  Entry into the building was gained after a lock on a rear door was “picked,” according to Sheridan. The door was not otherwise damaged. The coin receiver of a jukebox was “jimmied” open and its content carried away.  Saucier said the coin compartment is emptied about once a month and estimated that more than $100 may have been taken.

Minister The Rev. Russell E. McConnell, 35, is expected to arrive in Caribou in February to assume his duties as minister of the Church of Christ here.  The new minister is a graduate of Preston Road School of Preaching in Dallas, Texas. Prior to that he had lived in Massachusetts for about 14 years.  Rev. McConnell will be the third minister to serve in the Church of Christ, which has been in Caribou for 18 years.

25 Years Ago – Jan. 26, 1994

McKernan scraps closures A proposal to close Houlton’s Superior Court and three district courts in Aroostook County, along with a host of others statewide, has been stopped by Gov. John R. McKernan.  Besides Houlton’s Superior court, there other courts in Caribou, Van Buren and Madawaska were on the list. State Rep. Mike Michaud, D-East Millinocket said he was pleased by the governor’s decision, but added he was taking steps to prevent Superior Court closures without prior legislative consent.

Brochures Merchants in Caribou will be allowed to post official business recreational signs to guide shoppers to stores in the downtown area.  Monday night, during the Caribou City Council meeting at the municipal building, council members voted unanimously to amend the current ordinance on signs in the Commercial One zone, which covers downtown.  The vote followed a public hearing and a presentation by Sam Collins of the Caribou Planning Board, which supported the zoning change. At the hearing, no one appeared from the public to support or oppose the recommended change.