100 years ago, 1913
The whole countryside stretched along the road in a patrol are anxiously watching a fiercely aggressive forest fire, which in an hour’s time tore its way through the woods on the north side of Bradbury Road, Lewiston, Friday afternoon. On the south side of the road is valuable timberland and hundreds of cords of hewn lumber. Farm houses and camps, on the shore of No-Name Pond, are safe as long as the wind keeps in a southerly direction. The wind is what the watchers are most anxious about. More than fifty men with shovels are digging trenches to head off the fire. A crew of fifteen men is in the charge of Lt. Pearson, of the Lewiston Fire Department. Another crew of similar size was sent by the Webster Woolen Mill of Sabatis, and a volunteer crew from the farmers are all working together.
50 years ago, 1963
Journalists visiting the Twin Cities in connection with the third annual Maine Products Show will be given tours of industrial facilities in the Lewiston-Auburn area. Seventeen writers and editors of New York and Boston publications will leave the tour headquarters at the Poland Spring Hotel at 8 a.m. on an air-conditioned bus.
25 years ago, 1988
Larry Higgins remembers wearing out the pages of his father’s gun catalogs when he was younger, back when his dad owned Higgins’ Garage in Auburn. The garage consisted of a repair business not only for cars, but also for assorted boats, canoes, outboards and guns as well. It’s the guns that have become a big part of Higgins’ own sporting goods establishment on North River Road. Some special items he has acquired range from German Luger handguns (the price of which has jumped form $3 in his father’s store right after the war to $10,000 recently) to hunting rifles with ornate engravings. In a photo, Higgins holds a .32 pistol which he believes was custom-made for royalty, a statesman or a high military officer. It is valued at $25,000. He also owns a 10-gauge percussion shotgun built by C.F. Nason of Lewiston, and an 1870 rifle with a tube-like sight. “You could hit the eye of a running chipmunk,” Higgins said.
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