Yesterday …

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10 years ago – Nov. 13, 1993

(As reported in the Bangor Daily News)

HAMPDEN – Ruth Gray of Old Town, a well-known genealogist and author, will speak at the Kinsley House on researching Penobscot County records.

Gray has written several books on genealogical research and is a member of the publications board of the Maine Genealogical Society, the sponsor of the event. The society has 20 local members and about 800 total in Maine, said William Shaw, president of the Penobscot Valley Chapter of the society.

The society also had membership in all 50 states and some Canadian provinces.

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BANGOR – A beaver that didn’t check its surroundings before it felled a tree caused a widespread power outage around midnight in the area.

Bill Cohen, spokesman for the Bangor Hydro-Electric Co., said Friday that when a beaver took a tree down near Passadumkeag, the tree took out a transmission line, which caused a problem with a transformer at Graham Station in Veazie.

Cohen said that inspectors could not find the exact source of the problem at the substation, but that there had been no other outages. He said the power was off less than an hour.

The number of homes and businesses affected by the outage would not be available until the next week, he said.

25 years ago – Nov. 13, 1978

ORONO – Air pollution doesn’t pollute the air alone. Impurities in the air are absorbed by rain and snow and create a hazard to fish populations in a growing number of ponds and lakes throughout Maine and New England.

A comparatively recent awareness of this problem in the United States has resulted in a $98,773 National Science Foundation Grant to two University of Maine researchers to probe the effects of atmospheric inputs of acid and heavy metals on the lake ecosystem chemistry and plankton.

The interdisciplinary study is under the direction of Dr. Ronald Davis, professor of botany, and Dr. Stephen Norton, professor of geological sciences, assisted by Dr. Thomas Hess, associate professor of physics, with the original NSF grant renewable for up to three years.

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ORONO – It was the classic match-up.

The high-powered, pass-oriented offense against the aggressive, gang-tackling defense and, as so often happens in the game of football, the defense prevailed.

The Orono High School Red Riots of first-year coach Niles Nelson, who have not allowed more than a touchdown and a two-point conversion in a game this season, emerged triumphant from the first-ever Little Ten Conference championship game by blanking Rockland’s Tigers, 16-0, at cloudy Doyle Field in Brewer.

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At the annual meeting of the James A. Taylor Osteopathic Hospital, George Avery, the hospital’s administrator, stated that this past year had been a successful one in many areas. Services to patients have been expanded through the acquisition of new equipment for fetal monitoring, long-term electro-cardiography, cardiac stress testing, complete pulmonary function testing laboratory, telemetry equipment for electronic patient monitoring in a non-intensive care setting; and a free blood pressure checking station.

Cost containment efforts were initiated during the year which the administrator feels have been successful in avoiding increases in the daily service charge during the period.

50 years ago – Nov. 13, 1953

LEVANT – Residents of the small farming communities of Levant, Kenduskeag and several surrounding sectors are in the clutches of an unprecedented precarious situation as the result of having been deprived of local telephone service – virtually isolating then from the outside world.

Since Tuesday morning, direct contact of approximately 165 subscribers with the Levant exchange of the local telephone company had been cut off because of the sudden move of its head, Joseph Hill, of “pulling the plugs” and locking up the office.

The irate subscribers, who really are “burned up” and, in some instances downright angry over the situation, say Hill failed to notify them of his decision to close up shop.

They add, however, that after the wires had been stilled, Hill explained that he intended to continue the shutdown for 72 hours but, they say, gave no explanation for his action.

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BANGOR – Mrs. Clarence Little, director of public relations for the Jackson Laboratory at Bar Harbor, spoke and showed colored slides at a meeting of the Athene Club held in the vestry of All Souls Church.

Mrs. Little said the laboratory was started in 1929 and since that time more than 500 scientific papers on the research of the laboratory have been published. She told of the work with the white mice in the fight against cancer, and termed them “miniature men” because the same results were possible in the human body.

Mrs. Little said the mice also are used because they are cheap to raise, and because their size is easy to house.

She said the work of the Jackson Memorial Laboratory has three phases: its own research; the service of supplying carefully inbred mice to other laboratories – 175 laboratories throughout the world receive weekly shipments of these mice; and educational training. Mrs. Little explained that scientific apprenticeships are offered to some 30 young people and 30 college students each summer for a period of 10 weeks. She said that they are taken as young as 14 years old if they show an outstanding ability in the field of biology.

100 years ago – Nov. 13, 1903

BANGOR – The Bangor branch of the Booklover’s library was opened at Charles A. Fowler’s drug store, with Walter I. Kenney in charge. Although the full number of books hasn’t arrived, the service is such as to indicate that everybody who belongs to the library under the present system is most fortunate. The new books are received at the same time that the book stores get them.

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BANGOR – Dr. George L. Hilton, who succeeds Dr. E.E. Goodrich as city physician, is a native of Bangor and received his early education in the local public schools. Afterward he attended the University of Maine, from which he graduated in the class of ’99, receiving the degree of bachelor of science. Later he entered the College of Physicians and Surgeons, Baltimore, graduating in 1902 and then locating to this city where he has established an excellent practice. He is a member of the Phi Chi Fraternity, the Elks and the Madockawando Club.

Although one of the youngest practicing physicians in the city, Dr. Hilton is already known for his unusual success, marked ability and courteous kindly manner.

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BANGOR – On Wednesday night the last log of the last steam mill drive of the season came into Bangor boom, and it is expected that rafting will be finished next week. It has been a very hard season for driving and rafting on the Penobscot, the water having been lower than in any other year since William Connors took charge of the Bangor boom, with the exception of the year 1888, when the pitch was 4 inches below this season’s mark.

About 55 million feet of logs have been received and rafted, however, under the direction of Mr. Connors and his brother, Patrick Connors, who has had immediate charge of the boom operations. The logs have been handled to the satisfaction of all concerned.

William Connors has, probably, handled more logs than any other man in America, and he may well be regarded as the king of log navigators, having been engaged in the business for more than half a century, 38 years of that time in charge of the Bangor boom.

He went to work on the boom as a wedge boy and has since that time done every kind of lumbering work, from chopping trees to conducting operations, and from handling a cant dog to taking charge of the biggest drives on Maine’s greatest lumbering river. From a woodsman earning so much a month, he rose to be an operator on his own account, and from a wedge boy on the boom he became finally boss of the whole concern – the contractor for the work of getting the logs from the boom to the sawmills on tidewater.

Compiled by Ardeana Hamlin