100 years ago, 1914
Deputy Collector Jennings of the Internal Revenue office in Lewiston received a letter from a Cincinnati attorney, Tuesday, asking for income tax blanks. The hard times can not have hit Ohio to the extent the rest of the country complains if all the income tax blanks are used up and the attorneys are sending to Maine for them.

50 years ago, 1964
The president of a big Maine food store chain, Richard Sampson of Sampson’s Supermarkets, today confirmed reports he is having test borings made along the Portland Road area of Auburn, across from the new Holiday Inn, and if the borings are good he will start immediate construction of a centralized office and produce warehousing complex. Sampson said that the produce division, which would be housed in Auburn immediately, would employ from 75 to 100 persons and the whole operation, including the centralized office, would provide an immediate payroll of about one-half a million dollars annually. Sampson’s present operation is centralized in Skowhegan. It is reported to be the largest independent supermarket chain in New England.

25 years ago, 1989
The prospective new owners of the old Marcal mill in Mechanic Falls made one of their periodic visits Friday to inspect the property and to meet with town officials. In snow and bitter cold, Judith Weatherwax-Knight and Robert P. Hicks, partners in Phoenix Investment Properties Inc. of Concord, N.H., walked around the mill property and talked about salvage and maintenance problems with Gale Williams, Jeff Coolidge and other local residents who are acting as caretakers. Weatherwax-Knight and Hicks confirmed that they hope to have a paper mill tenant operating in the mill in two years. Three buildings make up the mill, the oldest dating back to about 1810. It is now used as a carpenter shop.

The material in Looking Back is reproduced exactly as it originally appeared, although misspellings and errors made at that time may be edited.