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Historical Bluffton

A story about a woman who voted in Bluffton in 1915

By Fred Steiner
www.BlufftonForever.com

The 19th amendment guaranteed all American women the right to vote on Aug. 1920.

Despite that date, a brief notation in my grandmother’s diary reads: “I went to vote and Margaret and Florence went with me. Margaret is one year old, Nov. 2, 1915.”

The note with the 1915 date confused me. I knew that women did not receive their constitutional right to vote until the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was ratified.

So, how could she vote in 1915?

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Nov. 11, 1918 - the biggest demonstration in Bluffton's history

Word flashed over the wire that the Armistice was signed

By Fred Steiner
www.BlufftonForever.com

Bluffton celebrated the end of the Great War in an all-day-long event on Nov. 11, 1918. The Bluffton News coverage stated it was the biggest demonstration in the town's history.

Following is the Nov. 14 Bluffton News account of the Armistice. And, following that story are several additional Bluffton News reports leading up to Nov. 11.

Nov. 14, 1918
The biggest demonstration in the town’s history began Monday morning at 3 o’clock, Nov. 11, as word flashed over the wire that the Armistice was signed.

Whistles, bells and auto horns heralded the Allied victory from dawn until dark. The noise increased in volume from 3 o’clock on, and a big parade organized, marched up and down the main street Thorofare, terminating with the building of a spectacular bon fire in the square.

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It happens every year, but this was the first one

The tale of Bluffton's first teenage speeding ticket

By Fred Steiner
www.BlufftonForever.com

Take a wild guess. You’ll be way off.

In which year was the first Bluffton teenager pulled over by a Bluffton police officer and charged with speeding?

Would you believe 1919?
The holders of this distinction are Raymond Stratton and Tesla “Tubby” Stearns. These Bluffton speed demons may have raced at the unheard speed, topping perhaps 15 miles per hour,  and in so doing created an incredible racket.

The story as we understand it follows from an interview we had with “Tubby” in 1989, when he lived at Mennonite Memorial Home, 70 years after the incident. First, a little background on these two potential juvenile delinquents. Stearns was a 1918 Bluffton High School graduate and Stratton was a 1919 grad. 

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Heritage Center update for October 29

Did you visit the Schumacher Homestead at Fall Festival? Big changes are coming to the Swiss Community Historical Society's Heritage Center project.

By Kaye Phillips and Seth Bixel

This will be a big week at the SCHS Heritage Center construction site. The Bixel/Basinger Barn will start to take shape on the foundation (PHOTO of progress). The sky crane will return. The sides are going to go back up. This barn was on Phillips Road in our Swiss Settlement for 173 years. Tomorrow starts the next 173 years plus, at the Schumacher Homestead on Bixel Road. Bluffton, Ohio.

Ashless cigar invented in 1919 in Bluffton

Bill Hahn, member of the BHS class of 1919 held the patent

By Fred Steiner
www.BlufftonForever.com

It’s a little-known fact that Bluffton, Ohio, is the home of the patented “ashless cigar.” Why there’s no sign at the edge of town stating this fact is something I’ve never quite figured out. Perhaps it’s time to do something about it. So, here’s me doing something.

This cigar information is a long-held secret in my family, who happens to hold the patent. 

One month after Roswell

By Fred Steiner
www.BlufftonForever.com

Bet you didn’t know that a “strange illuminated object” was sighted in rural Bluffton. It occurred one month after a “flying disc” was recovered from a ranch near Roswell, New Mexico, home of one of the most well-known extraterrestrial area  in the United States.

One can only imagine how history might have struck us, had the object crashed in rural Bluffton – no matter what might have been discovered in such a wreck. 

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