120 Years Ago – Sept. 8, 1904
Building a new flour mill — D. E. Edwards of Fort Fairfield, is building a roller flour mill at Four Falls about a mile below the Aroostook Falls in the Province of New Brunswick. The new mill will have four double stands of rolls and will have a daily capacity of 40 barrels of flour. Mr. Edwards also has a roller flour mill in Fort Fairfield which he has successfully operated for more than a half dozen years.
Large shipments going out — The Fish River Lumber Co. during the month of July shipped from its mills at Eagle Lake, McNally and Howe Brook, 3,500,000 feet of lumber, about 300 cars being required to transport the same. This is truly a big record and gives some idea of the magnitude of the lumber manufacturing operations in Aroostook county.
115 Years Ago – Sept. 9, 1909
Accepted a position — Putman Wakefield, an experienced baker from Houlton, has accepted a position with the Caribou Restaurant.
Be assured of good quality goods — When three such reliable and well-known firms as the Noyes & Nutter Mfg. Co. of Bangor, the Combination Clothing Company of Caribou and G. A. Hagerman of Houlton are furnishing prizes to be given away in a voting contest, the public may feel assured that the goods offered are of the A 1 quality.
100 Years Ago – Sept. 4, 1924
Summer course completed — Mrs. Ada Britton, our efficient librarian, returned recently from Boston, where she has been taking the summer course for Library Science in Advance Cataloging at Simmons College. This is a splendid course and Mrs. Britton feels that she derived much benefit from it Mrs. Britton and Miss Humphrey of the State Library at Augusta were the only two from Maine taking this course.
Drilling a well — A well is being drilled at the Cary Memorial Hospital. S. B. Lister is in charge of the work.
75 Years Ago – Sept. 8, 1949
Caribou man named to head county bankers — At a meeting of nearly 150 members of the Aroostook Bankers Association in Houlton Wednesday, J. Franklin Anderson, treasurer of Caribou’s Aroostook Trust company, was elected new president of the organization. Other officers elected were vice president Maurice Knowles, treasurer of the Ashland Trust Co., and secretary-treasurer Charles Nutter, manager of Mars Hill branch of the Northern Bank of Presque Isle.
Publishers of Maine coming to Aroostook next weekend — Milton A. Caniff of New City N.Y., cartoonist of ‘Steve Canyon,’ will be the featured speaker at the annual meeting of the Maine Press Association in Aroostook County September 16-18. Also the creator of ‘Terry and the Pirates’ and ‘ Male Call,’ Caniff will give a chalk talk at the supper session to be held at the Plymouth Hotel, Fort Fairfield. Gordon Fraser will entertain the convention Saturday noon during a dinner stop at Green Acres.
25 Years Ago – Sept. 8, 1999
Weather service expanding — At the stroke of midnight Sept. 1, all aviation forecast responsibilities for the Bangor, Caribou and Houlton airports became the responsibility of the National Weather Service Office in Caribou. Warning Coordination Meteorologist Hendricus Lolofs said aviation forecasts are very specific and detailed and contain information about visibility, precipitation, fog, wind shear and cloud amount and heights. Used by non-commercial pilots, the forecasts are issued routinely four times each day and amended as needed. Prior to the change, aviation forecasts were issued by the National Weather Service office in Gray. Also scheduled for the end of the year is installation of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association (NOAA) weather radio. NOAA is beneficial because it will enable the weather service to issue a warning in almost a third of the time it took before and will free up a staff member to assist in the forecast and warning process.
In Fort Fairfield, new hope — The businesses are coming back to Main Street. The opening of two new businesses downtown within the past six months — Bridgeside Variety and Peter’s Motor Mart — may not seem much. BUt outside of Rite Aid, they are the first retail enterprises to open rather than close since the 1994 flood. And local business leaders say there is more to come. Cheryl Boulier, executive director of the Fort Fairfield Chamber of Commerce, said she has talked with several local people who have businesses elsewhere who want to move downtown once the dike is completed.
