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Float full of flowers in Milford parade

100 years ago, 1914

Milford High School won the state debating title, defeating Lebanon.

Ovid J. Boutin, of Border Street, Milford, was fined $6.62 on a charge of assault with a gun after shooting a cat owned by Richard Elliott. Boutin said that cats were raiding his henneries and causing much slaughter among his chicks. The cat survived.

The Grand Hotel in Mont Vernon was being completely wired for electricity by W.E. Billings, of Milford.

The senior class of Milford High School raised about $50 by sponsoring a showing of “Ivanhoe” at the Star Theatre in town. The class furnished the orchestra, ushers and ticket takers.

In Wilton, Judge Bales fined a drunk the usual $3. The drunk was ordered to remain out of Wilton for 60 days or take a jail sentence. The police said they would arrest every drunk who made an appearance on the streets of the village.

70 years ago, 1944

Pfc. Thomas Barbour Jr., of Milford was wounded in Italy when his left wrist was hit during combat. He was recuperating in a U.S. hospital in Italy, which was visited, while he was there, by Irving Berlin and Marlene Dietrich.

Ernest J. Medlyn, of Milford, was promoted to sergeant and transferred from Malden, Mo., to Amarilly Air Base in Texas.

Mrs. Susan Court was the first Milford woman to donate a gallon of blood at the Nashua blood bank.

The Women’s Christian Temperance Union was scheduled to meet with Mrs. H.R. Elliott in Amherst.

The Town Hall Theatre in Wilton was showing “Around the World” with Kay Kayser and Joan Davis.

Lightning struck the home of Mr. and Mrs. Perley Bartlett, of Lyndeborough, doing quite a bit of damage. It might have been serious had they not found the burning curtains and put out the fire when they did.

50 years ago, 1964

Dr. John Rock, clinical professor emeritus of gynecology at Harvard, gave the Milford High School graduation address and said that monogamous marriage was the ideal which conforms to natural law and to “the participation of God within us.” (Editor’s note: Dr. Rock was best known for the major role he played in the development of the birth control pill.)

The new $900,000 Greenfield State Park was just about ready to open.

A pledge that was to be distributed in the Milford-Amherst area said, “I will welcome people into my neighborhood without discrimination because of race, religion, or national origin. I believe my community should make no distinction on these bases, and I will endeavor to make my personal practices match my belief.” The Cabinet urged readers to sign it.

Mrs. Arthur Stevens, the Wilton school nurse who also pinch hit as town nurse because Wilton was without one, announced that 396 persons were treated at three free clinics, with 250 getting oral polio doses.

The Milford Drive-In Theatre was showing “Lawrence of Arabia,” plus two cartoons.

25 years ago, 1989

Amherst, Brookline and Mont Vernon officials were considering a three-town cooperative high school after a four-town plan was defeated when Hollis voted against it.

The Milford Rotary Club awarded scholarships to three local students: Joanna Wolfe, of Amherst, who planned to attend Holy Cross, Sarah Taylor, of Lyndeborough, attending the University of Vermont, and Chris Esslinger, of Milford, who would go to Ithaca College.

Only about two dozen voters attended a reconvened Amherst Town Meeting, postponed in March, and quickly funded a police contract after negotiators reached a settlement on May 31.

Marshall Strickland resigned as Amherst fire chief after 17 years in that post, and 31 years as a firefighter.

The Town Hall Theatre in Wilton was showing “Chocolat” and “Heathers.”

The Wilton-Lyndeborough Cooperative School Board named former boys soccer coach Jim Parratt to coach the new girls soccer program.