100 Years Ago: May 4, 1911
• Charles F. Thomas, one of Caribou’s promising young men, now of Harvard, has received an appointment in the Massachusetts General Hospital.
• Mayflowers are suppose to be in bloom now, but the weather is more propitious for snowballs.
• Representative Frank E. Guernsey has introduced a bill into the House of Representatives asking for an appropriation of $50,000 for the purpose of building a new post office in Caribou. Now that the government has decided on the site, it is earnestly hoped that there will be no delay in getting the appropriation through. That the business of the Caribou post office has completely outgrown its present facilities is a recognized fact.
• Potatoes are at $1 a barrel.
• It is reported that MacGregor Brothers will have the contract to build the electric railroad from Washburn to New Sweden.
75 Years Ago: April 30, 1936
• Major Ward C. Goessling of Bangor, former regular army instructor the batteries of the 152nd FA in Aroostook County, came to Caribou Monday evening to begin the federal inspection of the four National Guard Batteries in Aroostook.
• Roller skate joring behind a pony was the sport enjoyed by the Misses Carlotta Randoph, Phyllis Cochran and Ruth Thibodeau Saturday afternoon. The girls went out in the country about six miles and returned.
• Miss Mercedes White, R.N., of New Castle, N.H. has taken the position of superintendent of the Cary Memorial Hospital. Miss White was for two years the assistant superintendent of this hospital when it opened in 1925.
• It present plans are completed by a group of Caribou business and professional men, Aroostook County will soon have its first real home financing association, located in Caribou and designed to serve the entire county. This association is to be chartered and supervised by the United States government but will be a local, mutual, thrift and home-financing institution, owned and managed and operated by local people. It will be known as a federal Savings and Loan Association. The civic minded and community spirited men who are sponsoring this association for the benefit of the towns in Aroostook County are: Dr. F.L. Gregory, O.L. Keys, George M. Carter, Grover M. Hardison, B.F. Feitel, E.H. Doyle, S.E. Shaw, M.D. McGrath, David Solman and J. Herbert Wakem.
• Newman A. Young has opened a garage for the display and sale of Nash and Lafayette cars as well as second-hand automobiles in the basement of the Odd Fellow’s building on Herschel Avenue at the head of Record Street.
50 Years Ago: May 4, 1961
• The Henry B. Pratt, Jr., Post 15, American Legion, Caribou, announces the candidacy of Roland Bouchard for the office of county commander, Aroostook County.
• Cub Scouts of Pack 182 held their monthly meeting at the Lutheran Church and Cubmaster John Merritt presented the following awards: Bobcat pin to Douglas Collins; Wolf badge to Ronald Morrill; Wolf Gold Arrow Point to Brian Johnson; Wolf Silver Arrow point to Paul Gallagher; Lion badges to Frank Anderson and John Merritt Jr. and Lion Gold Arrow point to John Merritt Jr.
• The resignation of Mrs. Anne Anderson, R.N., as director of nursing at Cary Memorial Hospital has been accepted by the board of directors and the administrator.
• Bertha Doody and Paul Massey were selected as the outstanding speakers at the Junior Exhibition presented by the Class of 1962 in the high school auditorium. Miss Doody gave the humorous selection, “June Night” by Albert van Antwerp and Massey gave the dramatic selection, “Afraid of the Dark” by William Callahan.
• Cote Construction Co. has started work on the new addition to the Caribou Junior High School. The $181,000 addition will increase the school’s floor space by about 13,000 square feet. To be housed in the new addition will be five classrooms, a music room, and additional storage space. The increase in floor space will also improve the kitchen facilities.
25 Years Ago: April 30, 1986
• Equipped with determination and a sincere interest in our city’s heritage, the Caribou Historical Society embarks this week on an ambitious fund-raising campaign to establish a permanent home for the treasures of our past. After years of working out of attics and basements, the public library and the Nylander Museum, the historical society will ask residents to support the construction of the Caribou Historical Center, to be located three miles south of the city on U.S. Route 1. One and one-half acres of land, located between the Lyndon Center School and cemetery — where Caribou was first settled in 1841 — was donated by Mildred B. Hatch.
• Mark Hester of Caribou was one of five Maine vocational education students to be honored recently by the state chapter of the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers. the local Northern Maine Vocational Technical institute student earned the award for excellence in post secondary school courses related to ASHRAE disciplines.
• Several local runners were among the hundreds of proven competitors who ran the prestigious Boston marathon last Monday. For these Aroostook athletes, it was not the prize money that drew them to the race, but the wonderful aura surrounding the 90-year event as a reward for putting in a long winter of training Caribou road racers Carol McElwee, Connie McLellan and Mike Mendonca traveled to Boston last week to take part in an annual 26.2-mile trek.
• Patricia Collins, a senior art major at the University of Maine at Presque Isle, will present an exhibition of watercolor works in the Marguerite Pullen Art Gallery from May 4 to May 14. Entitled, “Watercolors — Pat Collins, 1986,” the show features 13 pieces consisting primarily of portraits in watercolors of friends and family members.