Historical Bluffton

Thanks to Joel Groman, who put names on faces! Here's the Bluffton sixth grade academic team from 2003-04 school year. Chad Matthewson was the team coach.

Here's the Bluffton High School alumni jazz band in a 2004 performance with Dave Sycks directing.

• Saxes from left, Jesse Henry '96, David Stratton '01, Peter Bixel '98, Andy Eddinger '00, Ben Hohenbrink '98

• Trombones from left, Brian Barry '96, Jacob Boehr '01, Amanda (Doty) Morrison '02

• Trumpets from left, Travis Unterbrink '96, Ben Harmon '01, Katie (Fultz) Ochoa '96

Twenty-one-year-old Stanton Steiner poses with his first, and probably the family’s first motor car.

It’s  a 1924 or ’25 Ford Model T “Doctors” Coupe. The picture was taken in a barnyard on his parent’s farm on Columbus Grove Road midway between Pandora Road and State Route 696. His parents were Sam and Sarah (Neuenschwander) Steiner.

Here's a Bluffton photo from what is believed to be a 1915 Fourth of July parade.

We base that upon the year of the vehicles in the photo, the bricked Church Street and the Russell Hotel on the left. The hotel burned to the ground in 1919. A very close examination of the license plates shows a "5."  We also take into consideration the style of the dresses worn by the women walking toward Main Street.

Here are the Bluffton school bus drivers in the 1963-64 school year. From left, Raymond Powell, Emil White (also the BHS art teacher), Wayne Zimmerman,  ______ Hicks, Rev. ________ Warren.

Viewers: Help us out with filling in missing first names.

Did you know that in 1958-59 there was a hotel on the second floor of what is today Reichenbach Steiner CPA?

That's where the "Hotel" sign hangs in this Main Street photo from six decades ago.

We'll allow your mind to wonder up and down Main Street as you check out this photo.

It looks like a 1955 Mercury is parked along the street. We'll consider that every vehicle in the photo was a V-8 lead-gas-only gas gussler.

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