100 Years Ago: 1920

Col. Charles Osgood gave $20,000 worth of bonds to the Central Maine General Hospital Sunday as an ” Easter present.” It was the largest gift  ever received by the hospital and was appreciated at this time when increased costs of operations require more in the history of the institution. The gift was received by William B. Pennell, president of the hospital association, who with a few people had been invited to Colonel Osgood’s house Sunday afternoon. Osgood explained the gift and its nature. Osgood said, “Without solicitation I have the pleasure of handing you a good six percent  bonds with the value of $20,000 to be known as the Henrietta A. Osgood Fund in the memory of my dear wife.

50 Years Ago: 1970

A meeting of the Androscoggin County Sesquicentennial Committee will be held in the Civil Defense building Auburn, at 7:30 pm Friday,  it was announced today by State Representative Louis Jalbert, chairman of  the committee. At the Friday night meeting, sale of  tickets and other arrangements for a June 6 ball at Lewiston Memorial Armory, a kick-off event of the year’s celebration, will be finalized, reports will be made by committees appointed for other events will be made, and proposals  for further observances discussed. Chairman Jalbert wanted it made clear that all interested residents of  Androscoggin County are welcome to attend and their suggestions and observance of Sesquicentennial ideas are invited.

25 Years Ago: 1995

Three young men from the Pequawket Valley Alternative School of Fryeburg Academy, along with Dave Sturtevant, co-founder of the school, traveled to Mount Vernon, Va., to rebuild George Washington’s barn as it had been built 200 years before. Troy Nelson of Stoneham, joined by Jim Kiesman and John Edmunds of Fryeburg, traveled with Sturtevant last week by van to George Washington’s home, to be immersed in the nearly lost art of building a barn by hand were ingredients of a once-in-a-lifetime education experience were a pit saw, a two-man saw, some cypress, oak and pine, master craftsmen, home-made bricks and history.

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