Classes at Trinity Lutheran School, Jenera began on Aug. 17. The school has classes for Pre-school through Grade 8.
Valarie Tharman joins Traci Hummer (Pre-school and Kindergarten), Connie Krueger (Grades 1-2), Jeremy Dennings (Grades 5-6) and Steve Strong (Grades 7-8 and Principal) as the teacher of Grades 3-4. Valarie is a graduate of Martin Luther College, New Ulm, Minnesota.
Emmanuel United Church of Christ will have a worship service and carry-in picnic at 10 a.m., Sunday, Aug. 16, at the village park shelter house by the high school baseball field.
Everyone is welcome. Bring a chair if you would like. Following the picnic there will be games to include all ages. There will also be a pie and cake walk.
Shizuo Tachibana of Japan will speak about the effects of the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima, at 7 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 16 at First Mennonite Church, Bluffton.
Shizuo will share stories of hibakusha, survivors of the A-bomb dropped on Hiroshima on Aug. 6, 1945. Now a teacher at Ha private preschool based on the Steiner method, Shizuo was the first member of the Hiroshima Mennonite Church.
The Pandora United Methodist Church will host a free community meal on Wednesday, August 26, from 5:30-7 p.m. in the church fellowship hall, 108 E. Washington Street, Pandora.
The meal is provided by the Mission Committee and the menu is subs/hot dog, cole slaw, assorted chips, sherbet, cookie, and beverage.
In 1865 the village of Bluffton was four years old.
There was no town hall. There were no Main Street retail buildings.
Bluffton University did not exist, nor did Bluffton schools. There were no railroads here.
A small pox epidemic had ravaged the rural Bluffton settlement from 1861 to 1863. The Civil War was ending. The State of Ohio had existed for only 62 years.
MORE PHOTOS AT BOTTOM OF STORY -
An Owens family, living in what is now the Lincoln Highway south of Bluffton, had recently converted to Catholicism.
