Yesterday …

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(As reported in the Bangor Daily News)

10 years ago – Oct. 16, 1998

ORLAND – As its name suggests, the small island nation of Iceland is hardly an agricultural paradise. Rich in thermal energy and fishing grounds, the country of 275,000 has one of the highest per capita incomes in the world, but must import most of its fresh produce.

That dependency on exports, combined with its size, make it a potentially perfect trading partner for Maine.

That’s why the Maine International Trade Center, along with Bangor International Airport and Massport, Boston’s transportation authority, invited a group of Icelandic produce buyers to stop in Maine while touring New England.

And that’s why on a gray rainy day, about a dozen Icelanders settled into a low-key luncheon featuring Maine products at the Alamoosook Lodge in Orland.

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ORONO – Constance Carlson was a woman of firsts. She was the first woman to be honored as an outstanding professor at the University of Maine. She was the first woman to serve as president of a UMaine college. She was the first woman dean of Bangor Community College.

Now, the memory of Carlson, who died last year at age 81, is making it possible for others to be firsts. Earlier this year, Esther Nettles Rauch, an educator, was named the first Constance H. Carlson Distinguished Lecturer in Humanities at Husson College, where Carlson was a member of the board of trustees. Today, author Tabitha King will be awarded the first Constance H. Carlson Public Humanities Prize given by the Maine Humanities Council, of which Carlson was a founding member.

25 years ago – Oct. 16, 1983

HAMPDEN – The Martin Kinsley House has been entered on the National Register of Historical Places, according to Earle G. Shettleworth Jr., director of the Maine Historic Preservation Commission whose staff entered the nomination. The designation is in recognition of its historic, architectural and cultural importance as part of the nation’s heritage.

According to the Hampden Historical Society, the Kinsley House was constructed about 1797, probably by New Hampshire carpenter-builder Stephen Little.

Its first owner, Martin Kinsley, was a graduate of Harvard and a militia major who arrived in Hampden from Hardwick, Mass., in 1797. Between 1801 and his death in 1835, Kinsley served as justice of the peace, representative to the general court, member of the executive council and state senator. He also was the first representative from Maine to the U.S. Congress.

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BANGOR – If the title hadn’t already been stolen, a good way to characterize the O.D.s would be “How to Succeed Without Really Trying.”

The Bangor veteran country-rock duo, who prefer to consider themselves a band, created their own audience and market nearly eight years ago and have remained virtually unchallenged by any other act in their quest for two-piece recognition.

Consisting of Steve Glencross of Bangor on electric bass and Sam Bryall, a Fort Fairfield native relocated to Bangor on 12-string acoustic guitar and lead vocals, the O.D.s generally evoke a rowdy response from their audience.

50 years ago – Oct. 16, 1958

BANGOR – Construction is going forward rapidly on Bangor Theological Seminary’s $300,000 library building on Union Street. Dr. Frederick W. Whittaker, BTS president, said that $270,000 of the building’s cost has already been pledged, but the seminary is seeking memorial and designated gifts for naming the building and certain rooms in it.

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CASTINE – Mrs. Gertie Blanche Spurling celebrated her 87th birthday at her home on Tarratine Street, where she and her daughter, Beatrice, reside. Mrs. Spurling keeps busy with housework and finds time to braid rugs and make articles for her church.

Mrs. Spurling said that Oct. 13 has been an important date in her life, as she became the bride of Capt. Edward Spurling on Oct. 13, 1898. He had four sons ranging in age from 4 to 11 and they all went to live on White Head lighthouse station.

But this was not the first island lighthouse she had lived in, as she began her career of living at lighthouse stations on Jan. 4, 1891, when her father, Capt. John Thurston, was appointed one of three keepers at Great Duck Island.

The year following her marriage, they went to Avery Rock lighthouse. She remembers that on March 31, 1900, during a particularly heavy storm with high seas, people at Bucks Harbor could see nothing by white foam and thought everything had washed off the rock. But when the wind moderated and the tide ebbed, everything was safe.

Mrs. Spurling found it necessary to teach her children until a teacher was supplied by the government and town officials. The seacoast missionary boat, Morning Star, and later the Sunbeam, visited them regularly, supplying books and gifts for the children. She held a Sunday school class every Sunday.

In 1911, Captain Spurling was appointed keeper of Dyce’s Head light in Castine, where they lived for 19 years.

“My only regret is that I’m not starting those 39 years over,” Mrs. Spurling said.

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OLD TOWN – A 17-year-old French Street girl who explained to police she wanted to do her father a favor and put the car away, drove through the back wall of the garage, dropped 10 feet into the backyard and struck a steel clothesline pole 2 feet from a neighbor’s home.

The young lady, treated at the office of Dr. John Pearson for a bruised nose, knee and left eye, was alone in the car.

She explained to Old Town Patrolman Leroy Foster, “The car began to move and I didn’t know how to stop it.”

Foster said the car dropped nose first into the back yard and continued on a few feet to strike the pole. The pole stopped the car from crashing into the neighbor’s house.

100 years ago – Oct. 16, 1908

BUCKSPORT – Frank Witham, a well-known young man of this village, was painfully, but it is thought not seriously, injured while hunting partridges in the woods back of the village, receiving a charge of shot in his shoulder and face.

The accident was the result of a shot fired at a partridge by another man of this village, who did not know Witham was anywhere in the range as they were not hunting together and neither had seen the other.

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CASTINE – Quite a commotion was caused in one of H.D. Crie’s herring weirs by a good-sized shark going in to lunch on sardines.

As soon as the shark was discovered, men hooked him and a motor boat towed him across to the dock. The shark was still alive when it arrived at the dock and several boys inspected it. They agreed that the shark was handsome and 7 feet long.

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NEWBURGH – A storehouse owned by P.E. Severance at South Newburgh was discovered to be on fire and word was sent in all directions for help.

It was but a short space of time when men began to arrive with ladders and pails. The fire was soon under control. The fire caught from the creamery smokestack setting on fire the roof of the storehouse, which was filled with flour and other goods.

As soon as the goods could be covered or moved out of the way of the water, which was taken from a stream nearby, the fire was out. The fire was discovered by M.B. Goodrich, who immediately telephoned the central office where a general alarm was given.

Compiled by Ardeana Hamlin