With a nod to America 250 celebrations, the Bluffton Icon presents a timeline of local history nestled within those decades. We begin here with the 1800s when surveyors and settlers first called the area Deer Creek, Crogan's Corners, Shannon and, finally, Bluffton.
FROM FACEBOOK__Bluffton Ohio Historical Society president Ron Epp brought this Boss Glove Factory relic to the March meeting and asked the 20 participants, "What is it?"
Join others with Bluffton area antiques and artifacts at the March 18 Bluffton History Show 'N Tell. The event begins at 7:00 p.m. at the Depot at Buckeye Lake, 405 N. Spring St.
MEDIA RELEASE—The Swiss Community Historical Society of Bluffton and Pandora is pleased to announce it has hired Neil Allen, a native of Ada, as its first-ever Museum Director. Gary Wetherill, president of the SCHS, stated, ”On behalf of the Swiss Community Historical Society, I’d like to welcome Neil Allen as our director of the Swiss Heritage Center. We look forward to working together with him as we enter a new era for the Society. His expertise and professionalism are already apparent in the first exhibits he has developed for the Society.”
MEDIA RELEASE__Fred Steiner formerly of Bluffton and now of Cincinnati [and the founder of the Bluffton Icon and Ada Icon], presented a program in early November 2025 in a club member meeting held in the Cincinnati Union Terminal. Steiner has presented the program several times; it is now available on YouTube.
The presentation titled “The life of my small town changed forever when the railroad arrived” is a narrative of the three railroads that once passed through Bluffton. Those include:
The abandoned Western Ohio Railway, an electric interurban, whose rails are still embedded in concrete under Main Street
The abandoned Akron, Canton and Youngstown Railroad, whose station remains today as a business on North Main Street near the community swimming pool
Norfolk Southern Railroad, which today has one local round-trip freight pass through town
MEDIA RELEASE__Bluffton Ohio Historical Society (BOHS) has been selected to receive one of 40 Ohio Preservation Kits designed to help small cultural organizations protect their historical documents.
“The kit includes conservation tools and product samples. We’ll be able to use these to preserve letters, photographs, newspapers, and other documents connected to Bluffton’s past daily life,” says Diane Winebar, BOHS acting archivist.
CORRECTED The article originally misidentified Jim Diller’s dad; his first name is Paul.
In 2016, Icon founder Fred Steiner wrote, Every town should have an Al Ingalls. Fred would go on to detail the remarkable features of the Ingalls Restaurant at 142 N. Main. The restaurant became Smith's in 1990 and is currently home to Campito Lindo.
