Air mail delivery in Bluffton?
83 years ago?
Yes, and here’s proof.

Susie Gilliland of Bluffton shared proof of this event with the Icon earlier this week. Here’s a letter postmarked from Bluffton on May 19, 1938. The letter was send to Susie’s father, Wayne Matter, who at the time was a pre-teenager living in Fort Wayne, Indiana.

Wayne as an adult returned to Bluffton and was active in many aspects of the community including serving as mayor.

The letter was sent to Wayne from his grandmother who lived in Blufton. She told him to keep the letter and envelope, which he did.

Here's the story behind the air mail letter from Bluffton

This was a Bluffton Lions Club project. The envelope reads:
First Air Mail Pickup
Bluffton, Ohio
May 19, 1938

The very interesting stamped ensignia reads:
Help us make bigger better Bluffton
Better for
Air mail service
Bluffton College

National Air Mail Week, May 15-21,1938
Sponsored in Bluffton by 
The Lion's Club 

In 1938 the United States was still mired in the Great Depression. Air transport companies were developing, but struggling to stay financially afloat. Air travel was still a novelty.

To promote air mail service, a nationwide public relations campaign was launched by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Postmaster-General James A Farley. It was called National Air Mail Week. It took place during the week of May 15-21, 1938.

To begin this promotion, on Saturday, May 14, the U.S. issued an air mail stamp C-23 (6 cent Eagle multi-colored airmail stamp) in Washington, D.C., and also Dayton Ohio, and St. Petersburg Florida.

The stamp initial design was provided by President Roosevelt with some art-deco touches added by a separate artist to give us the final design.

The stamp honored the 20th anniversary of the inauguration of scheduled air mail service in the U.S., which had its formal beginnings on May 15, 1918, with flights between New York, Philadelphia and Washington, D,C.

Citizens was encouraged to mail or receive an airmail letter during the week-long celebration. Postal employees, postal organizations, civic and municipal authorities, radio stations, newspapers and citizens cooperated to make this a successful event.

Thousands of cities across the U.S. and most territories became involved with their own local air mail activities. Close to 10,000 individual city cachets were prepared, giving each locality a chance to boast about what made their locality proud, special and important.

On Thursday, May 19, over 1,700 special one-day-only flights occurred carrying these specially prepared air mail covers linking location to location.

Forty-three special flights were made by women pilots. One special flight was made by the first black pilot to carry airmail. Grover C Nash flew a special one-day flight from Chicago via Mattoon, Illinois, to Charleston, Illinois. Many local airports were dedicated during the week. Some special flights were delayed due to weather and only one of the special flights crashed.

Over 16.2 million letters/covers and 9,000 parcels were transported by air that week.

And, today, this air mail event is part of forgotten Bluffton.