100 years ago, 1916
A Lewiston bound Interurban car crashed into an automobile owned and operated by Cad Sawyer of New Gloucester, Tuesday afternoon, near that town. It was raining at the time and the roads were very muddy and traveling was difficult. Mr. Sawyer was having some trouble to keep his machine in the road. As his auto neared New Gloucester, an Interurban car approached from Portland. The side curtains on the auto were drawn to keep out the rain and although Motorman Stone saw the auto, Mr. Sawyer did not see the electric, it is said. The motorman, supposing that Mr. Sawyer would stop his machine or steer it from the track, kept on his way. He saw, when it was too late, that an accident was inevitable and though he put on the brakes as much as possible, the electric hit the auto with terrific force. The machine was pushed ahead of the car for some distance and both of the occupants were thrown out among the wreckage. It was only by sheer luck that both of them were not killed, according to the verdict of those who saw the accident.

50 years ago, 1966
(Photo Caption) NOT WHAT THEY WERE FISHING FOR — While a 17-pound snapping turtle wasn’t exactly what 11-year-old Armand Paradis and his brother Mark, 10, had in mind when they set off for a day of fishing near the Hotel Road, Auburn, they wasted little time in capturing it after Mark spotted the 16-inch-long reptile on the bank of the Androscoggin. The boys are the sons of Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Paradis, 26 Giroux St., Auburn.

25 years ago, 1991
Toward the end of a grueling six-hour meeting Tuesday, the City Council ratified a one-year contract with one of its police unions. The contract, which the 15-member Police Supervisory Command Unit recently accepted, calls for a three percent step increase beginning Jan. 1, said Denis Jean, Lewiston’s personnel director. It is the first labor agreement reached since five city contracts expired June 30. “It’s clean, it’s simple,” Jean said Wednesday morning. The contract extends from July 1 to June 30, 1992, he said.

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