120 Years Ago – Nov. 11, 1904
Store is almost complete — L.W. Stevens & Son’s new store on Sweden street is nearing completion, and will soon be occupied by the Hines & Smith Co., the grange store moving into the store where Hines & Smith are now located.
Sold the farm — It is reported that the Ernest Washburn farm was sold Saturday to Jerry Sithe for $18000, Mr. Washburn purchased this farm last year for $15000 – and thus does the price of Aroostook real estate appreciate in value.
115 Years Ago – Sept. 10, 1909
New telephones put in — The residents of F.S. Smith, C.F. Sheperd, Dennis Martin, Percy Logan, E.E. Hayes, J.C.F. Bagley, D.L. Teague, W.F. Ireland have recently had telephone instruments put in; also Hines & Smith potato house near the C.P. station, and the Caribou Wagon Company.
Back from the World’s Fair — H.S. Hardison returned Tuesday from an extended trip to Chicago, Wisconsin and St. Louis. He visited the World’s Fair, and like all those who attended, was favorably impressed with its magnificence. In regard to the Maine building, Mr. Hardison gives it as his opinion that the one thing above all others to make it an unqualified success was the lack of an exhibition from this state to place in the building. The structure was all right and attracted more attention than other state buildings, but lacked a display of Maine’s products. Fred Blackstone and L. Hobbs were also at the Fair with Mr. Hardison; they returned last week.
100 Years Ago – Nov. 6, 1924
A new shop opens — A Mr. Sullivan has opened a new tailor shop in the rooms over the Combination Clothing Co.
School receives winning pennant — Mrs. Nellie Stitham, teacher of the fourth grade of the High street school has just received a communication from the Maine Public Health Association, stating that her school has won a National modern health crusade pennant in the All-American Tournament of last year in which 7,000,000 boys and girls took part. Caribou has reason to feel proud of the record this school has made in winning this pennant and helping to place Maine second in the Union in the number of pennants won, in proportion to population. A good deal of credit is due Mrs. Stitham, who takes great interest in health work. Mrs. Stitham, who is a very efficient teacher, is a graduate of Monson Academy, class of 1907, Farmington Normal School, class of 1909 and has 15 years experience in teaching. For four years she was principal of Lake View grammar school, taught four years in the schools of Dover-Foxcroft and has taught the fourth-grade in Caribou besides tutoring several summer terms in Bangor. Mrs. Stitham is preparing an interesting program to be given when the pennant is presented to the school.
75 Years Ago – Nov. 10, 1949
Nat’l. Trade magazine lands S.W. Collins building renovation — ‘The Lumber Co-operator,’ a national trade magazine, lauded the renovated S. W. Collins Co., office-warehouse building in its October issue. Photos of the Maine knotty pine office and departmental salesroom accompanied the article. The completely remodeled building, formerly a wholesale grocery storehouse on Washburn ave., now includes private offices, the bookkeeping department, and a sectional salesroom utilizing decoratively the very products the company sells. Under the title of ‘Modernizing begins at Home’ the national magazine congratulated the company on its practical and attractive redecoration.
Noted physicist visits local weather station — You’d never guess too much about a fellow like Irving Hand. But he’s the kind of man you’d like immediately once you met him. In fact, you’d almost feel free to slap him on the back as though he were an old crony of yours. Despite this, you would never guess on meeting him that Irving F. Hand, who visited Caribou’s weather station recently on an inspection tour, is one of the county’s foremost authorities on solar radiation. He is a physicist and could fill book after book on the relation of the sun and its heat to the earth. The physicist’s visit to Caribou last week was to adjust the unit which had been put in last April. The intricate mechanism has since been recording the amount of energy being received here daily from the sun. Hand spoke of the Caribou group as being ‘just as congenial as any I’ve found.’ He praised the spirit which prevails among the personnel here and enjoyed their hospitality so much that he hopes to return next summer for a revisit.
25 Years Ago – Nov. 10, 1999
Technical-school bond benefits local regional vocational center — Students at the Regional Vocational Technical School in Caribou are enjoying the $838,000 worth of new equipment the school bought in the past year, thanks to a bond issue Maine voters approved for the technical schools last year. The $50,000 paint room is the only one of its kind in the County, said Lynn McNeal, director of the Regional Vocational Technical Center in Caribou. The expensive purchases were in the large equipment operations & maintenance class, said McNeal. Three front loaders were bought for the class, including the Caterpillar, he said.The new front-loaders, a new fork-lift, two new dump trucks, a new bulldozer, and two vans were purchased for the large equipment operations class.
ATX Forms on Inc. list again — When my copy of Inc. magazine hit the mailbox last week, I couldn’t wait to dive in to find out whether Aroostook County made the list again. Every year around this time Inc. – which bills itself as ‘The Magazine for Growing Companies’ – publishes the Inc. 500. The list is similar to the one released annually by Fortune magazine, except that it highlights small companies. To make Inc. ‘s list, a company has to be independent and privately held; have at least $200,000 in sales in 1995 and a five-year sales history that includes an increase from 1998 to 1999; and be based in the United States. The firm can’t be a holding company, regulated bank or utility. At #469 is a small company with a big reputation in its field: ATX Forms Inc. of Caribou, Maine. ATX is the letters spelling ‘tax’ rearranged, and taxes are what ATX is all about. The company, headquartered on Sweden Street in downtown Caribou with an office in Fort Pierce, Fla., produces tax-preparation software for accountants and other professionals worldwide.
