Acadian and French-Canadian families settled in the area of present-day Van Buren at the end of the eighteenth century. From its farming roots, Van Buren developed into an important regional milling center; thanks to the St. John Lumber Company, it could boast the "largest long lumber mill east of the Mississippi" in the first decade of the twentieth century.

The town also momentarily became an educational center for the region. Priests from the Society of Mary established a college with grades ranging from high school to the baccalaureate. The first building (the three-story building with a dark mansard roof at center-left above) was completed in 1887. The church of Saint-Bruno is seen on the right.

The card bears a 1906 postmark. No person named Hackett is yet known to have lived in Van Buren at this time. The publisher may have been a member of the Hackett family who owned a department store in Caribou.