Before there was a Dixie Highway...before there was a Lincoln Highway...before there was a State RoutE 235...railroads were the way to travel.
Here's a 1902 photograph of neighboring Ada's Pennsylvania Railroad depot. The line connected New York City and Chicago with very fast service. Depending upon your point of view, not much or, quite a bit has change in 110 years.
No, you aren't in Bluffton, anymore. This is Ada. The year is 1902 and the photograph shows the major building of what was called Ohio Normal University on South Main Street Ada. This photo is from a book of Ada photos titled "Ada and the O.N.U. - The New and the Old," published in 1902. The booklet is from the collection of Bob Barnett.
Ever wonder about how the interstate was constructed around Bluffton? Actually this photo might be pre-interstate. First there was the Dixie Highway from Lima through Beaverdam, through Bluffton (Main Street) and onto Findlay. It was two-lanes all the way.
In the early 1950s a bypass of Bluffton was created. That bypass eventually became part of the future Interstate 75, which came later in the 1950s.
Here's a photo near Bluffton of either the bypass or Interstate as the cement goes on the future highway.
Here's a plaque not often viewed. It's the builder's plaque of the Beaverdam District School, erected in 1934. Names listed include, board of education members:
W.C. Lacock, president
J.B. Leatherman, vice-president
M.S. Stewart
O.W. Huber
H.F. Clausing
S.M. Vertner, clerk
S.R. Salter, superintendent of instruction
Thos. D. McLaughlin & Associates, architecth
Clarence L. Knowlton, builder
Bluffton pioneer photographer, Will A. Triplett, had an interesting sense of humor. This photo is a photographer's "set up."
There are several items to check.
For example, the colt on the ground is playing dead, the boy in the chair holds the horse harness, but so does the dog - also sitting in a chair - behind the boy.
There are probably other set ups in this photo and unfortunately the joke is on us, because people of 2012 may not see what else is going on in the photo.
Trains are running on time on the Bluffton Western Terminal Railroad. Dr. B.W. Travis handles the Union Pacific City of San Francisco. The Travel O gauge model railroad was a Bluffton from the late 1940s to late 1970s.
