100 years ago, 1915
George D. Curtis of Auburn has gone out West again, but this time he didn’t make the trip on foot. The feat which this young man performed in 1909 —a walk from Portland, Me., to Portland, Ore., is well remembered. He set a record, having covered 3,740 miles in 133 days of actual walking, or an average of 28 miles a day. Curtis, who is the son of Rev. W. Paul Curtis of Turner Street, Auburn, returned to Auburn and resumed work in the Turner Centre creamery in Auburn. The call of the West was upon him, however, and this, coupled with the fear of ill health, led him to return to the Pacific coast. He left Auburn last May.

50 years ago, 1965
The Franklin Company, on the heels of delays regarding the clearing away of the pile of debris at the site of the former DeWitt Hotel in Lewiston, has undertaken negotiations with a local firm for clean up of the mess. Auburn Attorney Frank Linnell, representing the Franklin Company, said another meeting was scheduled with the unnamed Lewiston firm this afternoon. The attorney said that he hopes that rubble-removing operations will begin on Monday. The project should take three or four days, Linnell said.

25 years ago, 1990
The groom wore Army boots, but so did virtually all of the other guests at an impromptu wedding ceremony Friday morning at the U.S. Army Reserve Center on Minot Avenue, Auburn. As the entire 619th Transportation Company of the Army Reserve looked on, Pvt. Dean Martin Jordan and Natalie Marie Coey, both of Gray, pledged to “love, honor and cherish” in a brief civil ceremony in the center’s drill hall. Sustained applause, hoots and whistles resonated throughout the room as Capt. Martin A. Remillard, the unit’s commander, pronounced the 22-year-old Jordan and the 19-year-old Coey husband and wife.

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