Historical Bluffton

By Fred Steiner
www.BlufftonForever.com

Due to quarries in the Riley, it could be said that Bluffton was built underwater

Did you know that the Big and Little Riley Creeks hold deep, dark secrets? 

This sounds creepy, and even crazy. But, its secrets border on being surprisingly dangerous.

Laugh if you must, but …

By Fred Steiner
www.BlufftonForever.com

Wouldn’t you know.

Bluffton High School’s first-ever football opponent was Columbus Grove. That game at Grove took place 121 football seasons ago.

Bluffton played Grove to a scoreless tie in a bruising contest, according to Fred Zehrbach, a lineman on the team.

By Fred Steiner
www.BlufftonForever.com

Ever hear of “Herrmann’s Quarry”?

Probably not.

That’s because it’s somewhere in the memory of a forgotten Bluffton generation. Perhaps at one time it had two names. We may never know.

But, Herrmann’s Quarry never disappeared. It simply had a name change.

One generation of Bluffton swimmers forgot to inform the next generation, and Herrmann’s Quarry slowly became the Buckeye.

By Fred Steiner
www.BlufftonForever.com

The world’s oceans hold many secrets. Sea monsters, sunken treasure and ghost ships fill our imagination with what’s below the surface of the mighty deep.

These great ponds do not, however, hold ownership to all watery mysteries. Surrounded by the Big and Little Rileys and several seemingly bottomless quarries, what Bluffton lacks in sea monsters, it makes up with mysteries held below its own waterlines.

The Buckeye takes but does not give back

The Swiss Community Historical Society will hold the final summer open house of 2022 from 1:00-5:00 p.m. on Saturday, August 6. The Schumacher Homestead, which includes the three-bay 1843 Schumacher house, is located at 8350 Bixel Road between Bluffton and Pandora.

By Fred Steiner
www.BlufftonForever.com

Did American folk hero John “Johnny Appleseed” Chapman pass through Bluffton during his apple-tree planting career?

A recently discovered Bluffton News column reveals that possibility.

In truth, he tramped around northwestern Ohio, dying in Ft. Wayne, Indiana, in 1845. Still, on a technicality, he never stopped in a village called Bluffton.

Instead, hints exist he may have visited Shannon – Bluffton’s name prior to 1861.

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