YESTERDAY…
10 years ago — Nov. 3, 2001
(As reported in the Bangor Daily News)
BANGOR — It didn’t look as if the Rev. David Michaud was doing much as he wandered from one section of the Maine Air National Guard base to another, just talking to people.
The Passadumkeag pastor’s ministry of presence, however, is vital to the men and women of the 101st Refueling Wing based at Bangor International Airport.
As the cold fall wind whipped at his dress blues, Michaud stopped to chat with a small group of fatigue-clad middle-aged men building a pavilion outside the dining facility. After checking the progress of the construction, designed to be used as a picnic area, he and his assistant headed inside to chat with the cooks.
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BANGOR — Even if he didn’t say so — repeatedly — it is obvious that children’s writer Bruce McMillan is still a kid at heart. He bounds from room to room in his home in Shapleigh — much of which he built himself — showing visitors his treasures: paintings, rocks and magazines he brought from his latest trip to Iceland. A quick story accompanies each item, including his airy, wooden abode. The house, southwest of Portland, he constructed with skills acquired in his sixth-grade shop class at the Garland Street School in Bangor.
25 years ago — Nov. 3, 1986
ORONO — The final installment of a dream that started 16 years ago was completed when dedication ceremonies took place for the Hudson Museum, located within the Maine Center for the Arts.
The museum, which includes displays of traditional and contemporary culture, will “serve as a beacon speaking about Maine to the rest of the country,” according to University of Maine President Dale Lick.
Completion of the museum marked the final link between a dream born in the minds of university friends and alumni 16 years ago and the reality of constructing the $7.7 million building, all from donations, to house a performing arts center and quality museum for the state.
The Hudson Museum is named for university benefactors J. Russell Hudson and his wife, Caroline Doane Hudson.
50 years ago — Nov. 3, 1961
BANGOR — Dr. Watson S. Purinton, oldest practicing physician in Bangor, observed his 89th birthday with a family dinner at his home, 15 Ohio St.
Dr. Purinton who has been practicing medicine for 63 years estimated that during the first 37 years of his career he had delivered some 3,000 babies, and during the early days of his practice babies were delivered in the home for the most part.
He commenced his career in Kenduskeag in 1898 after graduating from Dartmouth College School of Medicine. There was no interning in those days so Dr. Purinton immediately commenced his career as a general practitioner.
Practicing medicine in those days was a hard life and remunerative. In those days, Dr. Purinton received 75 cents for a house call which might have taken him miles into the country by horse and buggy or sleigh. Five dollars was the fee for delivering a baby. The family physician in those days also was the dentist and Dr. Purinton has extracted many a tooth for 25 cents.
He practiced first when minor operations were done in the home and during his early days performed some major operations on a kitchen table.
He has two daughters, Mrs. John Webster of Bangor and Mrs. Alvin Griffin of Arlington, Mass., and two sons, Dr. William A. Purinton of Bangor and Earl Purinton of Portland.
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BANGOR — “I don’t see any need of this,” Luther Ames of 21 East Summer St., Brewer, informed the NEWS photographer and reporter when they appeared at the C. Woodman Company to talk with him on his 86th birthday.
He was far from impressed by the attentions of the press but finally consented to picture, while stoutly protesting that he “had never done anything to deserve this, and who told the NEWS about it anyway?”
Mr. Ames sees nothing unusual about a man of 86 working eight hours a day, not even when his trade is the building carpentry which requires a great deal of agility and involves exposure to the elements in all kinds of weather.
“You can’t retire, you’ve got to work,” he declared, stating his firm conviction that work makes for well being. “Most people I know who stop work are ready to start using a cane before very long. People would be a lot better off if they did even a little work. It’s good to be busy and it would help out with the money problem for some that retire and then have to worry about living expenses.”
Born in Prospect in 1875, he learned the carpenter’s trade there and worked in shipyards in Machias during World War I. He and his wife, the former Charlotte Rainey of Prospect, moved to Brewer in 1929.
Mr. Ames and one other man were working on a storehouse they were building for the C. Woodman Company. Mr. Ames has been with the company for about a year and said that he prefers working on regular basis rather than “jobbing.” “I’ve never worked alone, and I wouldn’t like it,” he said.
100 years ago — Nov. 3, 1911
BANGOR — Early November finds the lumber industry of the Penobscot River and eastern Maine generally fairly active so far as sawing and shipping the 1911 stock of logs is concerned, but with a decidedly dull winter in prospect. It is stated that operations on the Penobscot this winter will not exceed 50 percent of lats winter’s cut, or 60 percent at the most, and that the same condition prevails on the St. John and most eastern rivers where any considerable part of the lumber crop goes to the mills.
Thus the great lumber streams will float fewer logs in next spring’s drive than at any time since 1876 when the survey at Bangor fell to 115,000,000 feet.
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CASTINE — Capt. R.B. Brown has a crew of men at work making extensive repairs on his coal sheds. Capt. Brown expects a cargo of coal within a few days.
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BUCKSPORT — Another of Capt. T.M. Nicholson’s fishing fleet arrived in port from the Grand Banks, the schooner Hiram Lowell, Capt. Albert Gott, with a good cargo of large cod fish. She cleared from here on the eighth day of June. All well.
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DEDHAM — A very pretty wedding occurred at the home of Mrs. Milton S. Blood in Dedham when Mrs. Blood’s daughter, Miss Inez C. McKinnon, was married to William N. Witham. The bride was charmingly gowned in white silk and carried a bridal bouquet. Mr. and Mrs. Witham left on the midnight train for a wedding trip through Canada, after which they will reside in Brewer.
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BREWER — The dog which has been at City Hall since being badly hurt in a fight has now practically recovered. He is a dog valued at $100 and is the property of Mr. Keizer employed at the Pooler Dye house. It is understood that an unusually vicious dog has attacked several valued dogs recently.
COMPILED BY ARDEANA HAMLIN