The Bluffton news. [volume], June 30, 1949, Image 1

About The Bluffton news. [volume] (Bluffton, Ohio) 1875-current

Image provided by: Ohio History Connection, Columbus, OH

                
BLUFFTON
9
A Good Place to Trade
VOLUME LXXIV
All Trails Lead to
You'll find the latchstring out at Bluffton over the
Fourth of July week end and you and all your friends
are invited in for the biggest celebration ever staged
here.
With all the open-handed hospitality of pioneer
days, Bluffton will welcome everyone to the big com
munity-wide observance of frontier days. AU roads
wiU lead to Bluffton, pardner, and right now is the
time to get ready to hit the trail.
Principal events in the double-feature Forty-Niner
PIONEER EMPHASIS
IN TOWN'S BIGGEST
PARADE SATURDAY
Prairie Schooners, And Floats
Featured in Forty-Niner
Parade
Cash Prizes Amounting to $105
For Best Entries In Gala
Community Event
Prairie schooners, surreys, buck
boards, horse-drawn hearses and
other conveyances of the pioneer era
will join with Wild West Forty
Niner Gold Rush parade at Saturday
night at 7:30 o’clock.
The gigantic parade, with an em
phasis on a revival of the days when
Bluffton was a backwoods pioneer
settlement, will be the biggest com
munity event ever staged here, and
will draw’ a crowd that is estimated
in the thousands.
Business window's filled with
antiques and relics of early Bluffton
bearded businessmen clerks in busi-
Al! business houses will be
closed during the parade.
ness places dressed in pioneer garb
and parade features dating back to
frontier days will provide a fitting
setting for the unique celebration.
Many Features
In the biggest parade ever staked
here, the old-time conveyances will
vie for attention with gaily bedecked
floats, old-time decorated bicycles
new and old automobiles tractors,
pioneer and modem farm imple
ments old-time threshing machines,
and horses which will be entered in
next Monday’s feature-starred rodeo.
An augmented Bluffton com
munity band will lead the parade,
and play a concert on the Presbyter
ian church lawn following the pro
cession through dow’ntown streets.
Ban Parking
To provide more room for the
thousands of spectators expected
here for Saturday night’s parade,
parked automobiles will be ban
ned on Main street between
College avenue and Elm street
after 6 p. m. Saturday. No
parking will be permitted until
after the parade has ended.
Cash prizes amounting to $105
will be awarded for the best parade
entries, spurring competition and
assuring a greater number of en
trants. First prize will be $50
second prize $25 third prize $15
fourth prize $10 fifth prize, $5.
Parade Route
Forming at Schmidt’s field,
the parade will be routed down
Cherry street to Railroad street,
up College Avenue to Harmon
road on Harmon road to Poplar
street, thence to Main and north
on Main street to the corner of
Washington street turn and
come back Main street to College
avenue, and return on Main to
the Town Hall, and then proceed
to Schmidt’s field ria Elm street.
Children with pets and decorated
wagons or other features will not be
permitted in the parade unless rid
ing a horse or in regular floats.
Presbyterians Give
Call To New Pastor
A call to
the pastorate of the
Bluffton and Rockport Presbyteran
churches was extended to Rev. Leon
ard McIntyre of Olena, Ohio, by
congregations of the two churches
Sunday night
The call was authorized by a vote
of the congregations in a joint
meeting after hearing Rev. McIntyre
in a trial sermon earlier in the
evening.
Rev. McIntyre, a graduate of Ob
erlin Theological seminary is pastor
of a charge at Olena, near Norwalk.
He is married and has a small
daughter. His reply to the call ex
tended this week is expected shortly.
Fireworks Ban Means Just That
M0?’ING
BOARD DEADLOCKS
IN SELECTION OF
NEW SCHOOL HEAD
Adjournment Comes Late Tues
day Night After Fruit
less Meeting
Members Agree to Drop Two
Candidates and Start Con
sideration Anew
Bluffton’s board of education,
hopelessly deadlocked on tWo appli
cants for superintendent of schools
here adjourned shortly before mid
night, Tuesday after agreeing to
discard both candidates.
Without a record vote the board
agreed informally to consider two
other candidates and a meeting for
that purpose will be held this Wed
nesday night.
From a field of 25 candidates the
board by a series of elimination
voting reduced the number to two:
G. S. Hammon of Plain City and
Harold Pfaff of Urbana.
Deadlock
for
into action with arrests and fines, Bluffton village of
ficials this week warned that municipal and state bans on fire
works, cap guns and sparklers mean just what the laws say and
violators will find that their fun can be of a costly variety.
One teenager last week drew a $25 fine in mayor’s court, with
$15 of the fine suspended on good behavior, and further violations
will be handled on an equally severe basis, the mayor warned.
Parents are requested to assist in protecting their children and
others by insisting that they not buy or discharge bootleg fireworks
which apparently are being peddled in this area.
Special police are patrolling the town to pick up violators of
the ban, and a rigid patrol will be exercised during the parade
Saturday night to make sure that discharge of fireworks will not
frighten horses and perhaps cause an accident.
Bluffton Of 75 Years Ago On Parade In
Window DisplaysiOf Business District
Two Nights
From that point, however, a dead
lock developed Monday night with
two votes in the board for each of
the candidates and a fifth member
not voting. The same deadlock con
tinued on two ballots Tuesday night.
All voting was by ballot with James
(Continued on page 11)
Births
The following, births at Bluffton
hospital:
Mr. and Mrs. Franklin Bame, Ar
lington, a boy, Marvin Lawrence,
Thursday.
Mr. and Mrs. Russell Harshe, La
Fayette, a girl, Brenda Lee, Thurs
day.
Mr. and Mrs. Kenneth Sommers,
Pandora, a girl, Sharia Fay, Thurs
day.
Mr. aftd Mrs. Daniel Long, Ada,
a boy, Richard Allen, Thursday.
Mr. and Mrs. Herbert Devier,
Bluffton, a boy, Gary Lynn, Satur
day.
Mr. and Mrs. Byron Anderson,
Bluffton, a girl, Connie Joan, Satur
day.
Mr. and Mrs. Victor Bormuth, Je
nera, a girl, Sunday. Mrs. Bor
muth is the former Alverda Dilts of
Bluffton.
Mr. and Mrs. Cloyce Ernest,
Lima, a boy, James Edgar, Sun
day. Mrs. Ernest is the former
Edna Huber of Bluffton.
Mr. and Mrs. Richard Cunning
ham, Ada, a girl Barbara Jean,
Tuesday.
Mr. and Mrs. Morris Triplett,
Bluffton, a boy, Timm Ashford,
Tuesday.
Mr. and Mrs. Gerald Augsburger,
Pontiac, Mich., a girl, Phyllis Ann,
born Tuesday morning in that city.
Mr. and Mrs. Ray Heiks, Colum
bus, a boy, James Robert, bom
June 21 in that city. Mrs. Heiks
is the former Elizabeth Bixel of
Bluffton.
Gold Rush celebration will be a gala parade Saturday
night, followed by a cororful Wild West rodeo on
Monday night.
With the emphasis on a revival of pioneer days,
the community wiU recreate a frontier setting—featured
by bearded business men, business district displays of
relics and conveyances and farm machinery of yester
year.
The pioneer flavor wiU permeate both the parade
and rodeo, and with Bluffton's celebration the chief
BLUFFTON TO CELEBRATE WITH BIG PARADE
Most Complete Display of Early
Blufftoniana Attracts Large
rowds
Exhibits Provide Fitting Back
ground for Bluffton’s ’49-er
Weekend
Reminiscent of the days when
Bluffton’s Main street was a streak
of mud or a cloud of dust, depending
on the weather, and dow’ntown stores
were little frame structures with
false-front second-floor, a series of
attractive window displays in the
business district this week have re
created the Bluffton of 75 years ago.
With virtually every downtown
place of business cooperating in the
antique display, relics harking back
to the pioneer days of this commun
ity provide a fitting background for
the Forty-Niner parade and rodeo
over the coming weekend.
It’s the most complete show of
early Blufftoniana that the commun
ity has ever seen, and a trip around
the business section will give an ex
cellent picture of what life was like
three-quarters of a century ago in
addition to providing an absorbing
45 minutes of entertainment.
Prized antiques owned by the
many collectors in this community
have been drawn on for some of the
displays, and cherished relics in the
homes of residents also have been
contributed for showing during the
pre-holiday period.
Original Treatment
Many window displays also show
well-handled touches of originality,
adding to the popularity of the show
ing.
In one large window the interior
of a pioneer log cabin is faithfully
reproduced together with antique
chairs, rope bed, hand-hewn cradle,
muzzle-loading rifle, furniture of the
(Continued on page 12)
Picked up Along
A covered wagon that actually
rolled westward during the Califor
nia Gold Rush is on display in down
town Bluffton this week and will
provide a realistic touch to the
Forty-Niner Gold Rush parade and
rodeo over the holiday weekend. The
101-year-old prairie schooner rolled
west with a Mormon family, accord
ing to Adolph Nordhaus, Glandorf,
Ohio, an automobile body shop own
er who purchased it five years ago
in Salt Lake City and shipped it
home. It is complete with a grace
ful canvas top and is painted in
the original steel gray color, with
golden eagles on the front and back
tail gates.
A similar parade entry will be
the 85-year-old Conestoga wagon own
ed By Frank Coleman, heavy equip
ment mover of Findlay. Chief dif
ference is that the wheels are broad
er on the Conestoga, for travel in
soft ground.
Adding a further touch of realism
to the pioneer celebration, a team
of oxen with long horns capped with
brass knobs will pull a prairie
schooner being built by the Herr
Brothers, Commuhity Market and
Art Swank in the parade and also
THE BLUFFTON NEWS
A NEWSPAPER DEVOTED TO THE INTERESTS OF BLUFFTON AND VICINITY
BLUFFTON, OHIO, THURSDAY, JUNE 30, 1949
Bluffton, Saturday Night', Podner The
k--:
REAL 1849 PRAIRIE
SCHOONERS TO BE
PARADE FEATURE
Two Pioneer Covered Wagons
Are Attractions on Main
Street Here
Will be Seen at Parade Satur
day Night and Rodeo on
Monday Night
Two covered wagons, reminiscent
of the days of the ’49 gold rush are
attractions on Bluffton’s Main street.
Arriving here the first of the week
they form the vanguard of the big
gest array of oldtime conveyances
ever seen in Bluffton which will be
a feature of the Fourth of July pa
rade on Saturday night and the
Fourth of July rodeo on Harmon
field Monday night.
First of the wagons, a prairie
schooner, was unloaded Monday. It
is from a collection of Adolph Nord
haus, operator of a body shop in
Glandorf, Putnam county, collector
of antique vehicles.
On Tuesdaj afternoon arrived an
85-year-old Conestoga wagon owned
by rank Coleman, heavy equip
ment mover from Findlay, horse
fancier, who collects antique vehicles
as a hobby.
(Continued on page 12)
organized Fourth of July feature in this area the dou
ble-barreled holiday program likely will attract the
largest influx of visitors ever seen here.
Special police will be assigned to handle traffic
on both nights and to patrol the crowds in making
sure that fire crackers are not discharged, thereby
running the risk of causing a panic among rodeo
horses and perhaps causing serious injury to spec
tators.
Prairie schooners, covered wagons, buckboards.
the Trail of Bluffton's '49 Gold Rush
at the rodeo. The oxen are being
brought here from a Kentucky lum
ber camp.
Those excellent pioneer windows
recreated in virtually every down
town business place will not go un
rewarded. A prize of* $5 and a
ribbon will be awarded by Guy
Scoles and Son, custom weed spray
ers.
Bristling beards which have mark
ed Bluffton business men’s pre-cele
bration contribution also will pay
off. Free haircuts will be provided
until the end of this year by
Swank’s Barber shop for the best
beard. Howard Rickly will provide
three five-gallon strained honey
prizes: one for the best beard one
for the best goatee and one for the
best mustache.
The town’s bearded gentry will
be preserved for posterity in a
photograph to be taken at 7 p. m.
Friday in front of the Neu-Art
studio. All who raised beards are
urged to be there. Judges for the
beard contest will be Charles Lloyd,
chairman Postmaster Ed R. Reich
enbach and Fire Chief Guy Corson.
You’ll See It Rolling In The Parade Saturday Night
ADOLPH NORDHAUS OF GLANDORF WITH PRAIRIE SCHOONER WHICH ONCE WENT WEST.
Evening Rodeo to Highlight
Independence Day Business
Suspended
No Mail Delivery on Holiday
Monday to Mark Start of
Vacation Week
Bluffton’s Independence Day cele
bration next Monday will offer the
usual assortment of recreational
facilities, plus an old-time western
rodeo on the night of the Fourth to
climax the gala holiday weekend.
With no other organized attrac
tions, the holiday weekend will find
local picnic spots popular places for
family gatherings, weather permit
ting. In addition, many local resi
dents will be out of town for vaca
tions during the week.
Business generally will be sus
pended from Saturday night until
Tuesday morning, and there will be
no delivery of mail on town or
rural routes next Monday.
Plant Vacation
The Triplett Electrical Instrument
Co., one of the town’s major indus
trial plants, will close for summer
vacation, beginning with the close of
work Friday night, and a number of
other local establishments will be
(Continued on page 12)
Two gold trophies will be added to
other prizes to be awarded at the
Forty-Niner rodeo next Monday
night. One will be awarded by
Buckeye Coach Co., of Beaverdam,
for the best old-time conveyance in
the exhibit at Harmon field prior to
the rodeo. The other trophy will
be presented by Jo Jo Harrison, of
Toledo, for the rodeo contestant
winning the most points. Harrison,
who will lead the Grand Entry, will
be remembered as the crippled youth
who participated in Bluffton’s first
rodeo and won several prizes.
Merchants, parade participants
and rodeo performers who are
beardless also will get into the
“beaver” class by wearing false
whiskers supplied without charge by
the celebration committee. All are
urged to get their beards at Gaiffe’s
Clover Farm market prior to the
parade evening.
Watch those fire crackers, boys.
Town officials this week cautioned
youngsters not to discharge fire
works during the parade or rodeo,
because of the possibility of causing
injury to spectators in case horses
are frightened by the noise. Crowds
(Continued on page 11)
Special Police To Enforce Ban On
Firecrackers Over Fourth Of July
..
NEW STATE LAW
MAY FORCE ISSUE
ON SEWAGE HERE
Stream Pollution Control Act
to Become Effective In Ohio
August 25
Authorities Are Reported Ready
to Force Compliance Thru
out State
Bluffton’s long-deferred sewage
disposal problem, which has plagued
succeeding village administrations
for nearly two decades, may come to
a head in early fall if a new state
program is pushed on the schedule
announced by the Ohio Department
of Health.
Possibility that 'impending state
action is not far in the offing was
seen last week in the announcement
that Ohio’s new stream pollution
control act will go into effect on
August 25, and that the state will
take immediate action to guarantee
compliance by villages and cities.
Under the new act, primary treat
ment of sewage and industrial waste
is required for all water discharged
into Ohio streams and boundary
waters.
Hope For Aid
Village officials in the meantime
are keeping their fingers crossed,
hoping that legislation pending In
Congress to provide one-third of the
cost of sewage treatment installa
tions may tie passed before the state
moves in requiring action here.
In some respects, Bluffton has an
edge on many of the cities which will
be affected by the new stream pollu
tion control act, for all plans have
been completed for installation of
sewers and a sewage treatment plant
here.
Work on Bluffton’s plans and
specifications were completed last
year and everything is in readiness
for the receipt of bids, once funds
are provided for the project.
Completion of plans was made pos
sible through an interest-free federal
loan, which will be repaid if and
when a bond issue is passed to
finance a sewage disposal program.
Mrs. Edwin Amstutz has returned
from Winona Lake, Ind., where she
attended the School of Missions the
past week as a representative of
the Missionary society of the First
Mennonite church.
BLUFFTON
A Good Place to Live
Latch String's Out
horse-drawn hearses and other conveyances of the
pioneer era, to be in the parade and shown at the
rodeo will be the principal magnet attracting visitors,
but Bluffton will put on a real pioneer show to go
with the celebration.
On Saturday night, clerks in downtown stores will
wear pioneer clothing, women will be in sunbonnets
and frontier costume and bearded business men will
remind visitors of the day when Bluffton still was a
backwoods community.
NUMBER 11
RODEO
RODEO TO BE TOP
INDEPENDENCE DAY
ATTRACTION HERE
Some of Northwest Ohio's Best
Horsemen to Be in Action
Monday Night
Elaborate Preparations Made for
Gala Event Under Har
mon Field Lights
An old-time Forty-Niner Western
rodeo, with contestants wearing
pioneer garb and prairie schooners
and other vehicles of earlier eras on
display, will feature Bluffton’s
Fourth of July celebration at
Harmon field, beginning at 7:30 p.
m. Monday night.
In the Gold Rush rodeo on bril
liantly lighted Harmon field, 12
feature events will be presented,
with prizes totalling $246 offered to
participants.
A record crowd is anticipated
since Bluffton’s night rodeo is the
only organized Fourth of July cele
bration in the entire area, and be
cause of the unique pioneer items
which will be on display on the
grounds.
Some of the outstanding horse
men and horsewomen in Northwest
ern Ohio, Indiana and Michigan will
compete in the star-studded show, in
addition to the many features of
pioneer import to be shown at the
field.
12 Events
Events include a double-feature
Forty-Niner Gold Rush Grand Entry
Bad Lands Brone Riding. Great
Plains Pony class, Wild Steer Rid
ing: Golden Musical Keg in two
divisions—men and women, and boys
and girls.
Homesteaders Obstacle Race
Western Gal Pleasure Horses, Gold
en Balloon Mill, Bag-O-Gold Special
event. Gold Nugget Race, Open
Prairie Calf Roping and Frontiers
man Western Stock Horse event.
Emerson DeTray, Defiance, who
judged last year's rodeo here, will
be the judge again this year. Clyde
Warren will be the announcer For
rest Herr is program and entry
chairman, and Al Ingalls is general
chairman of the gala show.
Others on the general committee
include Art Swank, vice-chairman
Ralph Reichenbach, secretary James
F. West, treasurer Roy Rogers, ring
master Art Swank, timer and Ed
Badertscher. parade marshal.
Bristling beards raised by Bluffton
residents to publicize the pioneer
flavor of this year’s celebration will
be matched by the false beards to be
worn by all rodeo contestants, and
all riders will be in pioneer garb, in
keeping with the flavor of the show.
Receive Degree Al
O. S. U. Graduation
Virgil Basinger, formerly of near
Bluffton, was graduated at the com
mencement exercises of Ohio State
university, Columbus, recently re
ceiving degrees of Bachelor of
Metallurgical Engineering and Mas
ter of Science.
He and Mrs. Basinger, the form
er Sara Moyer, will make their home
in Cincinnati where he has accepted
a position with the Cincinnati Mill
ing Machine company.
Elected President
Of Music Teachers
Herbert Jones, supervisor of music
in the Carrollton, Ohio, high school
was recently Elected president of the
eastern district of the Ohio Music
Educators association.
Jones is a
Bluffton college graduate. His wife
is the former Ruth Beidler, daugh
ter of Mr. and Mrs. Harvey Beidler
of South Jackson street.
Making a Rainbow
In creating a rainbow droplets
of rain act as prisms, splitting sun
light into its color components of
the spectrum.