Historical Bluffton

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Original Bluffton elementary school

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The ghost of schools past stands proudly at the end of Church Street. the Victorian beauty served the students of Bluffton from the 1880s to the early 1950s.

This is a copy of a Will Triplett glass plate negative taken prior to 1900.

Viewer comments are welcome. (There are no class lists on the front doors.)

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Kathleen Mikkelsen provided this Stauffer family photo.

Seated are Isaac and Catherine Herr Stauffer. Standing from left are their children, Ruth Stauffer Stuckey, Chester Stauffer, Raymond Stauffer, Mabel Stauffer Minck, Howard Stauffer, Emmet Stauffer and Florence Stauffer Hamilton.

Each of the children graduated from Bluffton High School. The family lived on South Lawn Avenue in the home where Basil and Rosemary Meyer live today (152 S. Lawn Ave.)

Kathleen's father was Chester Stauffer.

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Members of Joe Cremean's Bluffton sixth grade class 1961-62 school year (BHS class of 1968).

Front row from left, Martha Luginbuhl, Mary Jane Baker, Linda Augsburger, Anise Sponagle, Doris Hamman, Bill Hauenstein, Todd Gratz, Yvonne Agner, Linda Mericle.

Second row from left, Barbara Diller, Barbara Martz, Pat Benroth, Jim Heiks, Fred Steiner, Barbara Basinger, Joyce Reichenbach, Jerry Kloeppel, Larry Conrad, Carol Koontz.

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Kathleen Mikkelsen of Mennonite Memorial Home provided this classic photo to The Icon. It shows Ralph Diller, operator of Brilliant Bronze gasoline station, a product of Johnson Oil Co. The photo was taken between 1938-40.

The station was located on the site of today's Bluffton Dari Freeze at the corner of South Main and Bentley.

There are several items to examiine in this photo. The price of gas is 10 cents, 5 cents for tax, totalling 15 cents (per gallon?). Notice the "contains lead" labels.

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From time to time a photo completely stumps the experts. We've passed this snapshot on to our panel of distinguised "We knew every one in Bluffton circa 1900-1961." No one on our panel - including Charles Hilty, Rudi Steiner, Richard Jordan - can identify this man. Paul Diller took the photo in the late 1940s-early 1950s on Main Street.

Icon viewers are welcome to offer suggestions on this mystery guy.

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Ed Rice, one-time Bluffton business owner, posed for this photo taken by Paul Diller sometime in the late 1940s or early 1950s. Rice's Tot Shop, was owned by Ed and his wife, Ethlyne.

The Rice family later sold the shop to a the Reichenbachs-Steiners-Lehmans, and the shop became Reistman's. Later the shop was sold to Paul and Jan Snyder, who operated it as Jan's. Today the Bluffton News is located in the former Rice Tot Shop.

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