100 years ago, 1915
Joseph D. Stanford, formerly of Lewiston, well remembered as one of the first superintendents of the New England Telephone in this vicinity, is making a trip to San Francisco via the Panama Canal and, as he puts it, “unless picked up by a German war-ship,” will write a few notes now and then for the Lewiston Journal. Mr. Stanford believes it likely that he will be the first person to make the entire trip by water from Portland to San Francisco via the Canal. He went from Portland to New York by the Maine Steamship Company and sails for Philadelphia by the steamship Northern Pacific of the Great Northern Pacific Steamship Company. This is a new ship, just out of Champs yard and this is her first trip.

50 years ago, 1965
(Photo Caption) Slow but sure the century-old DeWitt Hotel is coming down day by day. Workmen have nearly completed removing one floor of a section on the Middle Street side of the building. The demolition of the hotel thus far apparently has been operating on a plan of carrying off the debris as it is removed. The razing of the hotel has resulted in many pedestrians stopping for a brief moment to view the interesting work.

25 years ago, 1990
Five years ago Turner, like many towns, was having trouble filling all the slots on its voluntary citizen boards. Often a single citizen served on several different boards. Many were reappointed term after term. But in the last several years, with an influx of new residents, some people who apparently have wanted to served on boards haven’t been considered, according to Administrative Assistant Bernice Gilbert. “We couldn’t consider them if we didn’t know they were interested,” she stated.

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