Iconoclast View

Wouldn't it be neat to have a 25-minute movie showing Bluffton in 1936?

The Columbus Grove High School Alumni Association has preserved two reel-to-reel films that depict the Columbus Grove community and school system as they were in 1936. 

The silent films were re-discovered by Laura Clevenger in the library a few years ago and, thanks to her, were saved and moved into the new building. 

Growing up next door to grandparents can leave an interesting perspective on your life. I know. I grew up next door. My maternal grandparents were Fred and Bertha (Althaus) Hahn. They were in the December of their lives when I knew them - 85-plus to be exact. They lived at 216 W. Elm St., where Irene Hamman lives today.

Sometime in the late 1940s, my grandmother started an Easter tradition. She painted Easter eggs for her grandchildren. She had all the eggs she needed because she had a chicken coup in the backyard. Bantams - small eggs. 

Icon viewers will notice several improvements to our home page today. But, please, pardon our mess – renovations are still underway.

Our continued enhancements to The Icon will make it easier for the nearly 1,000 viewers who check the Icon each weekday. (Some days its higher than 1,000). Ryan Lowry, our technical director, is putting these changes in place.

We’ve basically added an entire new page to the home page and the improvements aren’t entirely completed.

It resembles a sign from Roman antiquities. Yet, it's in Bluffton, and you've stepped over it lots of time. Maybe you never looked down. It's there. But where? 

For the answer, check the photos below this story.

The Holy Grail of Bluffton High School athletics is gone and we didn’t even get to say goodbye.

John Hartzler – not a Bluffton household name in 2013 – died at age 100 in January. Who was John Hartzler? Why does his death matter?

Here’s the answer

In the dawn of Bluffton High School athletics the school played an independent schedule in all sports. Its team colors were red and white, but those teams were not called the Pirates. They had no mascot.

How do we know Bluffton is 840 feet above sea level? There's a "bench mark," with that information. Where does one find the bench mark? 

Click on the photo below for the answer. You've passed it countless times. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The bench mark is located at the corner of Main and East Elm Street in the lower outside corner of the town hall.

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