Historical Bluffton

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Elbert Dubenion, Bluffton College football standout, was featured on this football bubble gum trading card in the early 1960s. The flip side reads:

ELBERT

DUBENION

BUFFALO BILLS

FLANKER BACK-END

HT: 6:00, WT: 195

AGE: 26; YEARS PRO: 3

COLLEGE: BLUFFTON

Team mates rate him fastest man in football. Elbert was voted Bills' most valuable offensive player. He is a two-way threat as rusher and pass receiver. (Fred Steiner collection)

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It's the Bluffton Post Office. But, look closely. How many things in this photo can you see that have changed since the photo was taken in the 1940s? Check out Main Street. It's brick. Look at the trees on the lawn. Closely examine the sidewalk widths. The modern ramp is not there, nor is the zip code above the doorway, or the white house behind the post office or the building to the north. One more thing: look closely at the post office doors. They have been replaced. We almost forgot. The lawn slants toward the sidewalk; there's no wall there.

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This photo gem comes to The Icon from The Allen County Museum railroad photo collection. This photo was not taken in Bluffton, but it shows a Lake Erie and Western locomotive and crew in front of the yard offices in Rankin, Ill.

The photo was taken in 1909. The Lake Erie and Western (later Nickel Plate Road and now Norfork Southern) goes through Bluffton. No doubt locomotive 5520 passed through town often.

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It was 100 years ago when this photo was taken. It shows the Bluffton third grade during the 1910-11 school year. Perhaps you have a relative in this photo.

Front row from left, Fairy (Berry) Musselman, Edmond Althaus, Howard Augsburger, Florence Johns, Beatrice (Steth) Conaway.

Second row from left, Helen Basinger, Geraldine Bigler, Harold Kemp, Mae McGeorge, Ruth Murray, Lester Hahn, Robert Swick, Bernice (Althaus) Carder, Frances Geiger, Opal Betzner, Carl Lewis.

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Sometimes you get lucky. Several of the old colorized post cards of Bluffton stated that they were printed by the Weixelbaum Brothers of Lima. You wonder where that business was once located. Wouldn't you know, that business is out of business, but the sign advertising the business can still be read at 50 yards on the side of its building. This sign is on the corner of East Market and Central Avenue in downtown Lima. Take a close look because its fading. Once upon a time many of the old Bluffton post cards were created there.

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It doesn't seem that long ago. It was June, 1988. You are looking at the last Greyhound bus to stop in Bluffton. This bus, a Lima-bound Greyhound did not pick up any passengers in Bluffton on that final zip through town.

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