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i. A Good Place to Trade VOLUME LXXIV 'W '•J* EX-MAYOR AGAIN WILL HEAD PARTY TICKET THIS FALL Consents to be Candidate on Plea of Local Precinct 4 Leaders Has Had Long Career Here as Municipal Mayor and Councilman W.‘ A. Howe, former Bluffton mayor, will head the Republican ticket as a candidate for that office at the November election. An nouncement to this effect was made by Bluffton Republican precinct committeemen following a meeting at the mayor’s office Monday night in which the former mayor was drafted to fill the vacancy caused by the withdrawal of Richard Davies, last spring's caucus nominee, who withdrew from the race in early summer. Party chieftains in making the annoucement said that Howe had agreed to run and that papers qual ifying him as the Republican candi date would be filed with the Allen County Board of Elections the last of this week. Howe, when contacted at his home on Spring street confirmed the an nouncement that he would be a can didate, but had no other statement to make at this time. To Oppose Swank As a candidate for his sixth term as Bluffton mayoralty candidate, Howe will oppose Gerald Swank, Democratic nominee in next Novem ber’s municipal election. With Davies’ withdrawal from the race, the way was opened for pre cinct committeemen to select a re placement candidate whose name will appear on the ticket next fall. Committeemen who drafted Howe for the race were Forrest Mumrna, William Amstutz, John A. Thomp son and Armin Hauenstein. The committee was unanimous in their (Continued on page 8) Produce Firm Buys New Site For Station The McCabe Egg & Cream com pany which two weeks ago sold their North Main street location ad joining the town hall have purchased the site for a new produce receiving station on Vance street in a deal closed the first of the week. The lot, purchased from Clayton Bucher is at the rear of the Slus ser and Henderson properties. A barn on the place will be remodeled by the, produce firm. The McCabe interests with head quarters at Attica, Mich., sold their present location on North Main street to Clayton Bixel, Bluffton automobile dealer. Bixel who will get possession Aug ust 1 has announced that he ex pects to remodel the business place into a modern salesroom for home appliances. Bixel-is associated with Kimmel Marshall in the operation of a home appliance business con ducted from the Bixel Motor Sales on Cherry street STREET PROGRAM IS NEARLY DOUBLE EARLIER ESTIMATE Appropriation Goes Farther as Costs are Less Than Anticipated Twenty-one Blocks Resurfaced Instead of 15 as Originally Planned Bluffton’s summer street program this week was expanded into one of the largest single improvement pro jects in the town’s history, with re surfacing of 21 blocks of 15 village streets included in work completed Wednesday afternoon. In preliminary planning, work had been earmarked for only 11 blocks of new streets, but expansion was made possible thru lower costs of ap plying tar than originally estimated, Street Commissioner H. L. Coon an nounced. With $4,000 available for re surfacing, the repair program was nearly doubled, and completion of the work will give the town its best streets in years, the street com missioner said. In the expanded project, resurfac ing was completed on four, blocks of Jefferson street, three blocks of Cher ry street, and one block on each Hu ber and Jackson street, in addition to work done on 12 blocks of Mound, Spring, Elm, Garau and Jackson streets College and Lawn avenues and Harmon road in the initial phase of the program. Major re-surfacing projects includ ed in the work directed by Street Commissioner H. L. Coon have been: Mound street from Huber street to College avenue. (Continued on page 8) A 17 2 Republicans Draft Wilbur Howe as Candidate Joe Fisher has made a lot of friends dur ing the 16 years he has served as watchman at the Cherry street crossing of the Nickel Plate railroad, and if the protests which have followed a proposal to abolish his job have any effect chances are he will remain at the post. Joe's friends—and they are legion—have been busy, urging municipal officials to pro tect his crossing watchman status, ever since announcement was made last week of a Nickel Plate proposal to install flasher lights at the College avenue crossing in exchange for council permission to dispense with the watchman at Cherry street. Season’s Record Wheat Yield Is 51 Bushels Acre LARGEST reported wheat yield this summer was 51 bushels per acre from the Orville Frantz farm in Orange township. Frantz lives at the intersection of Route 103 and Rawson road. The wheat was marketed at the Jenera elevator. 0 "You Cant Do That to Joe" Friends Cry as Watchman's Job is Periled New Faculty Members Are An nounced For Coming School Year New Bookkeeper Also Will Take Over Duties in Business Office Three new instructors will be add ed to the Bluffton college faculty this fall, marking changes in the music, mathematics and political science staffs of the institution. New members of the faculty will be George Thielman, instructor in history and political science: Laurel Dirks, instructor in mathematics and physics and Laurence Burkhalter, instructor in violin and band and orchestral instruments. Thielman, of Toronto, Canada, will replace Larry Gara, who was an In structor at the college for the first time last year when he got into trouble with federal authorities over the draft registration law. Thielman is a graduate of Bluffton college. Dirks, who will be in the mathe matics-physics department, has an M. A. degree from Kansas State university. He and his family will live in the Ross Bogart apartment on Cherry street. Burkhalter, replacing the late Sidney Hauenstein as instructor In violin, also will be in charge of bana and orchestral instrument instruc tion. He and his family will live on Jackson street in the Kirchhofer sisters’ property, formerly owned by Mrs. Henry Badertscher. Burkhalter is a gradiAte of Bluff ton college and last spring received his M. A. from the Northwestern University school of music. In the business office, John Weaver, former instructor in the Goshen, Indiana, high school will be bookkeeper, replacing Mrs. Donna Harnish. Weaver, a widower, ana his daughter will live in the property at North Jackson and Elm streets now occupied by Jerome Herr. Herr and his family will move soon into their new home on the County line, now nearing completion. Columbia University was first known as KingsC ollege. THE BLUFFTON NEWS A NEWSPAPER DEVOTED TO THE INTERESTS OF BLUFFTON AND VICINITY BLUFFTON, OHIO. THURSDAY. JUIA 1 BEGIN CONSTRUCTION OF NEW COLLEGE GYMNASIUM F* ■-JSt»■ .• Artist’s Sketch of the New Gymnasium-Auditorium being built on the Bluffton College campus. It will have a sealing capacity of 2,000. Councilmen took no action on the pro posal when it was read at last wek's meet ing, and the matter was tabled for consider ation at a later dater. In urging retention of the Cherry street watchman, residents east of the railroad also have pointed to additional protection provid ed for school children crossing the railroad by having Fisher on the job. But another reason, perhaps equally im portant, is the fact that motorists and pedes trians using the crossing wo^ld miss Joe's friendly smile and wave of his hand, which have become established as one of Bluffton's principal landmarks over the last 16 years. College Names New Personnel On Faculty And Business Office ORANGE TWP. AUTO CRASH TAKES LIVES OF FATHER AND SON Robert Clinger, 23, Dies In stantly In Collision at Riley Creek Church Corner Two-Year-Old Son Succumbs In Hospital Seven Hours Later Three Others Hurt A 23-year-old Williamstown father was killed instantly, his three-year old son died in Bluffton Community hospital seven hours later, and three other persons were in the local hos pital with serious injuries, the result of a two-car highway accident at the Riley Creek Baptist church corner in Orange township, at 8:30 p. m. last Wednesday. Robert B. Clinger, 23, died of a skull fracture, and his three-year-old son, John Franklin, became the second fatality early Thursday morn ing in the Bluffton hospital. The boy’s death was caused by head, chest and internal injuries. A $100,000 damage suit as the result of the accident was filed Tuesday in the Hancock county common pleas court against Grismore by attorneys represent ing the administrator of Clinger’s estate. Also seriously hurt in the two-car crash were Mrs. Mary Clinger, 23, who sustained lacerations of the fore head and contusions of both knees another son, Donald Lynn Clinger, seven-months-old infant, who has a fractured left leg and the driver of the other car, Henry Grismore, 43, of Jenera, suffering from frac tured ribs, a lacerated forehead, and abrasions of both knees. All ex cept the Clinger infant have left the hospital. The Clinger car, northbound on the Rawson road, was in collision with the Grismore auto, eastbound on Route 27, at the Riley Creek Baptist church corner. The church on the (Continued on page 8) 1949 i s 1 For Mayor To Nominate Candidates In Party Caucuses Bluffton and Richland township Democratic caucus in the class room at the rear of the high school library, Friday night at 8 o’clock. Bluffton and Richland township Republican caucus in council room, town hall, Wednesday night, Aug. 3 at 8 o’clock. Orange township Republican caucus at Orange Center, Friday night at 8 o’clock. BUCKEYE PIPE LINE CLOSES MT. CORY BOOSTER STATION Action Follows Installation of New 22-Inch Oil Pipe line Three Employees Living in Bluffton Assigned to New Locations Operations have been suspended at the Buckeye Pipe Line Company’s booster station located near Mt. Cory, as an aftermath to laying a 22-inch line between Lima and Cyg net this summer. Although the plant, which em ployed 14, will not be dismantled, it will remain closed and only main tenance men will remain on duty. Most of the operating crew of 14 have been transferred to Cygnet, with others assigned to new posi tions in Lima, including two Bluffton residents. With the new 22-inch line in use and carrying a greater volume of oil than the smaller lines which the booster station served, pumping is no longer needed to speed the flow of oil, company officials announced. Oil will continue to move through the Mt. Cory lines, but it will be pumped direct from Lima to Cygnet, since slower movement of the fluid will not interfere with company op erations. Three Buckeye employes living in Bluffton affected by closing of the pumping station are Robert Geary, Vine street Harold Dicus, Spring street, and Forest Harmon, Lawn avenue. Geary and Dicus have been as signed to positions with the com pany at Lima, and Harmon has been transferred to Cygnet. The Mt Cory pumping station has been operated by the Buckeye Pipe Line Co. for many years. During the war it was expanded and mod ernized when the demand for oil reached record proportions. To Teach In Perry Township Schools Gail Rakosky of South Main street has accepted a teaching posi tion in a Lima district school in Perry township. Rakosky who was graduated from Bluffton college last spring is attending Ohio Northern university at Ada this summer tak ing courses in elementary adminis tration. s’WUws”” M-v 'W’•fir*jMV 5 S-Bt Editor’s Note—This ia one of a series of articles to appear tn the Bluffton News dealing with early Ohio history. Others will appear in forthcoming issues. Old Cornstalk Town It is a long look back to two years before the Revolutionary War and the Ohio picture then was a strange one. In 1774 Ohio was a part of Bo tetcourt County, Virginia, with the county seat at Fincastle. Botetcourt County was a big one— until cut up in 1778 it included all of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota and what now is West Virginia. After Botetcourt County was divided. Ohio was part of Illinois County, with county seat at Vincennes. In even rows of pole-and-bark huts on either side of a narrow street along the northwest bank of Scippo creek. Old Cornstalk Town was the captial of the Pickaway tribes of the Shawnee nation and most important the Indian towns on Pickaway Plains, a few miles west of Circle ville, Pickaway County. At one end of the village a larger pole council house stood, and there Chief Keigh tughqua, known to the whites as “Old Cornstalk,’’ met with his braves and decided momentous questions of foreign policy. Indians Burn Captives Just across .Scippo creek was Grenadier Squaw Town, ruled by Old Cornstalk’s sister, the Grenadier Squaw, but under the chief's direc tion. There the narrow gauntlet path of the tribe was located and at the edge of town, the “burning ground," where captives of the Shawnees over most of lower Ohio were taken to be burned at the stake. Other Shawnee towns and villages were along the Scioto River and on Congo creek, but Old Cornstalk Town was most important—-the chief lived there. Such was the background in Au gust, 1774, when the Rt. Hon. Lord Dunmore, with 3,000 picked men started an expedition to “wipe out the Indian towns on the Scioto.’’ About half of Dunmore’s army had been raised in Botetcourt and Fincastle counties and the balance, from ad joining counties. About 1,100 of them were commanded by Col. Andrew Lewis and were to advance in a dif ferent column and from another di rection. Lewis’ troops started on September 5 from Green Briar and followed the Kenhawa River to the Ohio. Dun more’s troops came through the mountains at the Potomac gap and came to the Ohio River somewhere above Wheeling. The plan of Dun more and Lewis was to join forces before reaching the Indian villages and on October 6 Lewis halted his army at the mouth of the Kenhawa, where Point Pleasant now stands, and waited for Dunmore to arrive. It was about four miles north of (Continued on page 8) Noah Bixel Dies At Home In Pandora Noah Bixel, 80, Pandora produce dealer died suddenly of a heart at tack at his home Wednesday after noon several hours after be had been removed from Bluffton hospital. Funeral probably Friday. A Good Place to Live NUMBER 15 $20,000 RECEIVED FROM LARGE GIVER AS WORK STARTS Power Shovel Begins Operations Wednesday Excavating for Building Quarter-Million Dollar Structure to Be Modern in Every Detail Construction of Bluffton college’s quarter-million dollar gymnasium auditorium was begun Wednesday morning when Robert Miller, Colum bus Grove contractor started a pow er shovel digging footings for the new structure which will be erected on the north portion of the campus a short distance east of Lincoln hall. Workmen were busy Tuesday clear ing away debris /torn the site. In connection with the start of construction, Dr. Lloyd Ramseyer, president, announced an additional contribution of $20,000 to the build ing fund. The donor, Mrs. C. H. Musselman of Biglerville, Pa., bene factress of the institution has pre viously given large sums to the col lege here. This contribution brings to a total of $185,000 the amount pledged for the new building, President Ram seyer said. Large Donors With the latest donation of $20,000, Mrs. Musselman and her family have contributed a total of $95,000 to the building fund. In previous donations Mrs. Musselman had given $65,000 and her daughter, Mrs. Louella Ar-_ nold, had contributed $10,000. The Musselman family has been substantial supporters of the college since 1928 when the late C. H. Mus selman donated funds to erect the beautiful Musselman Memorial liK. brary on the campus. The family controls the large Mus selman canning industry in Bigler ville. Large Building Project Erection of the new building will be the largest construction project in the Bluffton area this summer. It will be modern in every respect for use Iwith as a gymnasium for college athletics or an auditorium for large assemblages. Both in de sign and appointments it will com pare favorably with any structure of its kind in the state. Plansf or the building were draft ed last winter by Ward & Conrad, Cleveland architects in conjunction with Oliver Davidson, Pandora ar chitect and approved by the College board of trustees at their meeting here in April. Facing south, entrance to the building will be reached by drive ways re-located to provide adequate approaches to the structure. Area at the rear of the building will be graded for parking space. Modernistic Design Modernistic in design, the new (Continued on page 8) Bluffton Couple Wed Sixty Years Mr. and Mrs. M. M. Murray, Bluffton’s oldest married couple, will observe their 60th wedding anni versary, Thursday. They were mar ried here July 28, 1889 and for many years have resided on Cherry street. Mrs. Murray, an invalid, has been a patient in Bluffton hospital since November 20, 1946, with little change in her condition in recent months. Real Estate Deal Ralph Patterson of Riley street has purchased the Mrs. Elizabeth Diller property on North Jackson street and will take possession Sep tember 1. Births The following births at Bluffton hospital: Mr. and Mrs. Noah Zimmerman, Jr., Bluffton, a boy, Kenneth Mich ael, last Wednesday. Mr. and Mrs. Wilhelm Amstutz, Jr., Bluffton, a girl, Pauline Reigh, Friday. Mr. and Mrs. Larry Baier, Bluff ton, a boy, Thomas Craig, Friday. Mr. and Mrs. Martin Burkholder, Lima, a girl, Pamela Kay, Sunday. Mr. and Mrs. Carl Bendele, Otto ville, a girl, Lind# Jane, Monday. IMr. and Mrs. Orville Basinger, Bluffton, a girl, Jane Ann, thia W’ednesday.