Paul Diller snapped this photo and then very quickly stepped aside as this giant Lima-built Berkshire steam locomotive barrelled toward him at about 65 miles per hour.
We can only guess what the engineer and fireman thought as they approached a photographer, standing in the middle of the rails.
Coming from Bellevue, it was westbound to Lima, and onto Muncie, Indiana, and headed perhaps as far west at St. Louis.
Here’s a Bluffton ribbon-cutting photo without any information, but we are working on a theory and we are checking it out with our esteemed list of Bluffton history fact-checkers, so stay tuned.
Jim Diller provided this photo, taken by his father, Paul Diller.
Our guess is this is 1960, based on the yellow-orange license plate on a Chevy station wagon. The tan and white car is a 1959 Pontiac.
The persons we’ve identified from left are William “Kaiser” Gaiffe, Clayton Bixel, _____, _____, Wilbur Amstutz (he was mayor from 1960-65), ___, ___, ___.
Liz Gordon-Hancock shares this photo with Icon viewers. She found it ebay.
If you think Bluffton parades are well attended today, look at this photo showing an early 1900s parade. The crowd is four people deep on one side and even more crowded on the other side.
We don’t know the purpose or exact year of this parade, however here are some observations.
There is a 1938 Chevy parked in from of the A and P. There is a newer Chrysler product, probably a 1945-46 model also in the photo. Plus, there's no Shannon Theatre – it wasn't built yet.
Lots of other things to notice:
• Gas pump on the far left side of the photo
• The Charles Company where Citizens National Bank is today
• One stoplight at the Cherry-Main intersection
• Notice the street lamps
• Notice the condition of the sidewalks
