Yesterday …

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(As reported in the Bangor Daily News)

10 years ago – Feb. 14, 1998

BANGOR – The competition to link homes and businesses to the proposed natural gas pipeline heated up with the unveiling of Central Maine Power Co.’s gas distribution system.

CMP is going head to head with Bangor Hydro-Electric Co., which already has a similar application before the state. The winner in the battle for Bangor, industry insiders say, will depend on which company can sign up enough customers to justify the investment in a major grid of gas lines.

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BANGOR – As the Trident submarine USS Maine moves silently through the ocean’s depths, it carries 165 crewmen, 24 ballistic missiles – and a wealth of historical artifacts.

“Our ship is almost a museum,” said Chief of the Boat Jeff Nihiser. “Everywhere we go, I see something of national historical significance. I can’t think of another ship that has the memorabilia on board that we do.

“But then, there’s no other boat with such national historical reference,” he said. “There’s no other ship that started a war.”

Nihiser was at the USS Maine centennial headquarters unpacking what he called “our prize possessions” taken from the ship and brought to Bangor for this weekend’s centennial commemoration of the sinking of the Battleship USS Maine in Havana Harbor in 1898.

25 years ago – Feb. 14, 1983

BANGOR – Trapping season was under way in northern Manitoba on the day more than a half-century ago when Charlie and Robert Dysart set off from their home in South Indian Lake, Manitoba, led by a team of dogs the brothers had groomed for the challenge of overland travel in the merciless climate.

Their destination was a line of traps another 120 miles north.

The brothers, born in Bangor, had left their Maine home in the early 1900s, drawn by the lure of gold mining in this region of Canada where surviving meant learning to be a dogmusher, canoeist, trapper and hunter.

They related their story to Stephen Hyatt and Clyde Folsom, researchers at the University of Maine.

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BREWER – Clara Harriman, 90, was honored at a birthday party on Feb. 13 at the Methodist Church, Brewer. Born in Olamon, near Passadumkeag, she spent most of her life in Brewer. She was married to Harold I. Harriman.

The party was given by her three children, Dexter Harriman of Orrington, and Marguerite Peterson and Elizabeth Kelsey of Bangor. She has 13 grandchildren and 10 great-grandchildren. She still lives at home and still enjoys seamstress work, a skill she has practiced all her life.

50 years ago – Feb. 14, 1958

HAMPDEN – A Sadie Hawkins Valentine Hop sponsored by the Hampden Academy commercial club will be held in the Memorial Gymnasium.

A king and queen will be chosen by popular vote to reign over the hop and the coronation will be conducted by Mrs. C. Ford Dyer, a member of the faculty.

King and queen candidates are seniors Nancy Bartlett and Addison Millett; juniors Jane Dickey and Richard Andrews; sophomores Judy Phillips and David Baker; and freshmen Belle Lambert and Peter Weatherbee.

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HERMON – Billy Golden was elected secretary of the Trail Blazers 4-H Club at a recent meeting.

Account forms were submitted for judging and the boys concluded the meeting with a marshmallow roast.

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OLD TOWN – Leo Pooler, 59, of Edmundston, New Brunswick, a former resident of Old Town, had been honored with a testimonial reception at Edmundston on his retirement as music supervisor in the schools of that city.

Mr. Pooler is the son of Otis Pooler of 84 Congress St., Old Town, and the late Mrs. Pooler, and is still a member of Father Druillette Council, Knights of Columbus in Old Town, which he joined in 1928.

100 years ago – Feb. 14, 1908

BANGOR – The Food Fair which opened in City Hall surpassed all records for food fairs that have been held in the past, both for attractiveness and attendance.

It is a rattling good show, and merits a large patronage. Samples of all sorts and conditions of groceries and cooked stuff are given away at the booths, and anybody can make a good square meal by a circuit of the hall. A band furnished music and Professor Deimar gave an exhibition of magic on the stage.

There are glass blowers, fortune tellers and all sorts of “side shows” that go to amuse the public. Victor and Edison talking machines are exhibited, together with the wonderful Reginaphone, a combination music box and talking machine.

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NORTH ORRINGTON – The public is cordially invited to the chapel Feb. 19 to listen to an address by Miss Alfreda Brewster.

Miss Brewster is a young lady of large experience, not only as a temperance worker, but is favorably known throughout the state as a very successful evangelist as well.

She has a very pleasing personality and is unusually tactful in presenting the various subjects with which she is identified. Wherever she goes she leaves an impression of her sweetness of character. She helps to make the world brighter in consequence of the uplifting influence she exerts upon those who are privileged to hear her. No dissenting voice is ever raised against her.

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EAST ORRINGTON – N.P. Smith is very busy hauling wood. He will furnish all those in the village in want of fuel for the coming year. His prices are low and his wood of fine quality.

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BUCKSPORT – The boat-building factory of Walter R. Soper is one of the busy places in town. He has just completed a wood-sawing machine, equipped with a 41/2-horsepower Olds gasoline engine for Francis Ginn, who has the same operation in the village. They also have about completed a 20-foot power boat, equipped with a 21/2-horsepower Soper gasoline engine, for Freeman Hutchings, which he will use the coming spring and summer for his fishing business down the bay.

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BANGOR – It is very likely that after Easter, Bangor may have a “pop” concert or two, similar to those played by the Boston Symphony in Boston.

All winter, Mr. Pullen has been rehearsing his orchestra of 32 pieces. The men have done it for the love of the work itself, and it has been decided that a public rehearsal would be given sometime in the near future.

There is no question about the success of the thing. People would be thick as fleas for a “pop” followed by dancing with music furnished by 32 men.

Of course there will be one little difference between the Bangor and the Boston “pop.” We can’t sit around at tables and have nice cooling drinks. But perhaps we can have Moxie or Coca-Cola or something.

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GLENBURN – Earle Cressy shot a bobcat recently that measured 3 feet from head to tail and weighed 25 pounds.

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BRADFORD CENTER – Mrs. Phebe Storer, an aged resident of this place, passed away at the home of her son, George Storer, where she had been tenderly cared for for many years.

She was 92 years of age, and leaves four sons, one daughter and several grandchildren, besides a large circle of friends to mourn her loss.

Compiled by Ardeana Hamlin