You'll recognize several athletes in this team photo. It's a Bluffton merchant's team that could have been sponsored by Triplett or Bluffton Stone Quarry taken in the mid-1950s.
Standing from left, Harry Klay, Keith Kirtland, Romanus Zuercher, Ken Moser and Lynn Schfkee.
Front from left, Don Oates, Don Schmidt, Morris Groman, Art Hilty and Dick Rocky.
Thes players were Bluffton High School graduates between the years 1944 and 1951. The photo was taken in the old BHS gym, where the team played.
First, some hints. It's doubtful that anyone under 55 can identify this building. That means it was razed sometime in the 1960s.
With a smokestack like this, it must have produced lots of power for several buildings.
Too bad there aren't other clues in the photo, except for what appears to be a 1950 or '51 Chevolet parked near the building.
Here's what we have: the Bluffton College power plant. It was located on the Riley floodplain facing College Avenue. Founders Hall would be on the left and up the hill.
Here are members of the Bluffton High School Hi-Y Club from the 1959-60 school year.
The Hi-Y club was affiliated with the YMCA. The club's purpose was “to create, maintain and extend, throughout the home, school, and community, high standards of Christian character.”
This class photo has volumes and volumes of stories.
The Icon believes that it is the Bluffton High School of 1919 as second graders. We state this because that young man on the far right of the second row resembles William Hahn, uncle of the Icon owner. Add to that, the photo was in a chest of Hahn family photos.
That places this photo in the 1908-09 school year. Depending upon when the photo was taken, either Theodore Roosevelt or William Howard Taft was president.
When it comes to fires in Bluffton, this one was one of the most tragic.
This was the Russell Hotel that was destroyed in a 1919 fire. The building stood at the corner of Main and Church (see the Mennonite Church steeple in the background).
The fire destroyed the holtel, the Lugibihl Hardware and the Bluffton telephone exchange.
Today Citizens National Bank is located on this site.
