99 Years Ago – November 26, 1925
Timberland in Eastern Maine 5 cents an acre — ‘Going—Going—Gone! This tract of timberland in eastern Maine was sold for five cents an acre. It had been fifty years, on October 28, 1875, that more than 12,657 acres of state lands were sold at auction at City Hall, Bangor, with the firm of Pearl & Webb conducting the sale, the former being Charles S. Pearl of Union Street. Besides the land sale, privileges of cutting timber on 30,000 acres were awarded. Five cents was the minimum and 90 cents the maximum price at the auction sale. The lands sold consisted of tracts in Penobscot, Piscataquis, Hancock, Oxford counties, which were disposed of under act of February 24, 1875. On the list of purchasers were such names as Isaiah Stetson, William H. McCrillis, J. P. Webber, S. H. Blake, J. C. Madigan and G. B. Dunn.
50 Years Ago – November 27, 1974
Rotary auction garnered $28,000 — The 27th annual Presque Isle Rotary radio and television auction brought in a total of $28,085.58, auction Chairman Nathan Grass reported Nov. 25. The auction took place on local radio and television stations Nov. 20 through 22, when Rotary members auctioned off merchandise donated by local and state businesses and individuals. Proceeds went to a.R. Gould Memorial Hospital endowment fund. Of the total amount raised during the annual event, $14,085.58 came directly from the auction and $14,000 was donated by the pledges of gold bricks. The gold bricks were sold for $1,000 each, payable in yearly installments of $100 over 10 years. Gold brick donors or those in whose memory gold bricks were donated were commemorated on a plaque in the hospital entrance.
Special beds given to the heart care unit — Four new intensive care stretcher beds were placed in the coronary care unit at the Arthur R. Gould Memorial Hospital in Presque Isle. The beds, manually controlled, were designed for cardiac intensive care patients and were equipped with many special features for emergency and resuscitation procedures. Donations made by family and friends to memorial funds established in memory of Harold Cooper, Margaret Dow, Lawrence Garrison and James Roche enabled the hospital to purchase the new beds. The beds eventually moved to the new location of the coronary care unit under the hospital’s expansion program plan.
25 Years Ago – December 1, 1999
A fitness center opened in Ashland — Residents had a new healthy way to spend time in their hometown. The Body Shoppe Fitness Center & Training Salon, offered a place to work out and get a tan. The facility was spacious at over 2,000 square feet. Besides rowing machines and free-weights, there were 10 cardiovascular machines included in the wide range of equipment. The opening was October 1 with a celebration for the community held Oct. 24. The site was a first for Ashland. Owner Nancy Flint had wanted to do this for a few years. The whole family helped run the facility. Flint’s school-aged children got to help when they were out of school. The Body Shoppe offered single, couple, and family rates. Parents with busy schedules could get some exercise and benefit from the kids’s playroom, making this a family-operated business.
Haley was appointed at TAMC — David A. Peterson, President and CEO of The Aroostook Medical Center, Presque Isle, announced the appointment of J.C. (Jim) Haley, MD, MBA, to the position of Vice President Medical Affairs. A native of Havre, Montana, Haley earned a bachelor of arts in biology at Stanford University in 1969 and his MD at Temple University Medical School in Philadelphia in 1974. He completed a family practice residency at Oregon Health Sciences University in Portland, Oregon, in 1977 and soon after, began his medical career at a private group practice in Leavenworth, Washington. Since then, he also served as director of a medical clinic and director of medical services at Eastern State Hospital in Medical Lake, Washington, and as a practicing physician in Lakeland Village in Medical Lake and at Lucy Lee Healthcare in Poplar Bluff, MO.
