100 Years Ago: 1924

A few days ago an elderly lady came into the Lewiston Journal and produced from a large pocketbook a very small scrap of paper. Unfolding it, she passed it over and said “What right have you to print such a thing as that? Who authorized it?”

Looking at the scrap of paper, we found it to be a marriage announcement dated August 12th, 1874.

“You printed that” said the lady “in your ‘Fifty Years Ago’. What about it? Who got you to do such a thing?”

The editor mildly replied that nobody “got him to do it”; that he did not know anything about it and what was the matter with it anyway?

“It ain’t me” said the lady. “It’s a friend of mine and she says she wasn’t married no 50 years ago. Someone made that up and has tried to make her out older than she is. She wants it corrected.”

“All right” said the editor; “no trouble to correct errors. We like to do it. But let’s see.”

So he went to the files of the Lewiston Journal of 1874, 50 years ago. And there in the paper was the actual marriage record — married by Rev. J. S. Burgess. Mr. Blank to Miss Blank etc.

“Well” said the elderly lady as she folded the paper and put it back “I suppose it’s so. There it is in black and white. Fifty years ago.”

And so she went out.

50 Years Ago: 1974

More than 4,000 payroll checks were reported missing Wednesday from a Portland bank and Lewiston police have cautioned area merchants that the pre-signed checks may show up in the area.

25 Years Ago: 1999

A surprise 50th wedding anniversary party was held recently for Roger and Georgette Doyon of 31 Flanders St., Auburn, given by their children at Meadowview Activity Center in Lewiston.

The couple arrived by limousine, where they were warmly welcomed by their family and friends. A buffet dinner was served, along with a cake made by Stacey Doyon.

The material used in Looking Back is produced exactly as it originally appeared although misspellings and errors may be corrected.