Workers and residents pose with a load of timber near Bluffton around the turn of the century. Early settlers found a “virgin wooded wilderness covered nearly all the land and it abounded with deer, wild cats and other animals, including bears,” the Bluffton News wrote in April 1953. “Prospective farmers not only were faced with the task of clearing their land, but in addition there were numerous marshes which required draining.”
Courtesy of Allen County Historical Society
On a Saturday evening in mid-October 1959 Nickel Plate Railroad passenger train number 9 departed the station at Bluffton bound for Coldwater, the end point of its journey from Cleveland. With its departure rail passenger service came to an end in Bluffton.
The following Thursday, the Bluffton News, reflecting on the end of passenger service to the village, noted, “Some towns were born because the railroad came – while others died because it didn’t – merchants in many communities fought bitterly to make sure the Iron Horse passed through their own town. Bluffton was no exception in days when it became obvious that the turbulent post-Civil War growth of towns was in direct proportion to their railroad connections.”
Bluffton got its railroad connection in the spring of 1872 when, thanks to the influence of U.S. Senator Calvin Brice and $20,000 from the village and Richland township, the Lake Erie & Louisville (forerunner of the Nickel Plate) reached Bluffton.
“Besides connecting Bluffton with the industrial world, the railroad also moved the town’s business center from the banks of Riley creek to the crown of the Main Street hill,” the newspaper wrote.
Bluffton was born on the banks of Riley Creek. “It was in 1833 that the first house, a log cabin, was built by Joseph Deford,” the Bluffton News wrote in 1927. “It was originally situated on North Main and Riley streets just southwest of the new bridge. Joseph Deford also built the first grist mill, a little corn cracker, on the banks of Riley creek.” Deford, a native of Maryland, was a veteran of the Revolutionary War.
By the time the Lake Erie & Louisville — which never made it to Louisville and eventually became the Lake Erie & Western before becoming the Nickel Plate — reached Bluffton, the place would have been unrecognizable to early settlers.
“At that time,” the Bluffton News wrote in April 1953 of the settling of the village, “the virgin wooded wilderness covered nearly all the land and it abounded with deer, wild cats and other animals, including bears. Prospective farmers not only were faced with the task of clearing their land, but in addition there were numerous marshes which required draining.”
In a reminiscence written in 1874 and published in a book by the Putnam County Historical Society, early settler John Sigafoos who, like Deford, built a cabin on Riley creek, recalled, “Our nearest neighbor was one mile distant, our next five miles. Still, we were not lonesome, for more than once the wolves scratched the dry leaves, from under our heads, that served for pillows. But fire off a gun or put a torch into a brush heap and the cowardly things would scamper off into the dense woods.”
In addition to dense woods and abundant, if cowardly, wolves, early settlers also had to deal with mud. “The muddy dirt roads in Allen and Putnam counties before the Civil War were traditional,” according to a July 1948 story in the Bluffton News. “The mud puddles were so deep and so close together that a new industry was born from them – that of mud hole rescue. Landlords of the various taverns along the roads provided themselves with extra yokes of oxen to rescue the travelers – mostly immigrants – whose teams could not pass the successive deep puddles. For that a small charge was made and gladly paid.”
“In 1838, five years after he had built the town’s first cabin and industry, Deford platted a village consisting of 19 lots,” the Bluffton News wrote in April 1953. “In naming the small settlement, Deford chose to honor Wilson Shannon, a prominent figure in the pioneer state and who was to become governor of Ohio…”
At that time, however, there already was a town in Ohio named Shannon so the settlement was called Croghan Post Office for mail purposes after George Croghan, a hero of the War of 1812. In 1813, Croghan led the defense of Fort Stephenson (now Fremont) against a superior force of British and native Americans.
“The precise location of Bluffton is possibly due to the fact that Joseph Deford built his little grist mill along the Riley, and the precise location along the Riley was ascertained by the old Indian trail extending from Lima to Findlay,” the Bluffton News noted in 1927.
In 1840, Richard Hathaway built a mill on Riley Creek. William Rusler in his 1921 Allen County history wrote that the mill “was a source of joy in the sparsely settled community. It marked the end of hand-grinding … the corn, and it stopped the long journey to mills at Gilboa in Putnam and to towns in other counties.”
That same year, Rusler wrote, Daniel L. Gobel, the first postmaster, had a store in what is now Bluffton, with his son, George, hauling supplies from Piqua, a journey that, “if he had good luck,” took a week. “When he went away the load was rags, hides and pelts and when he returned it was clothing, dry goods and whisky,” Rusler noted, adding that “Henry Carter also ‘wagoned’ to Piqua at the time, using four horses.”
By January 1848, Shannon was a thriving Putnam County village of about a dozen families. After February 1848, Shannon was a thriving Allen County village of about a dozen families.
In mid-February 1848, maps of several area counties were redrawn to create Auglaize County. As part of the restructuring, a swath of southern Allen County became northern Auglaize County while a portion of southern Putnam County was attached to Allen County. According to the Putnam County Pioneer Association’s 1973 centennial history, “Putnam County lost valuable lands to Allen County by an Act of Feb. 14, 1848.” That land, the history noted, included several “thriving villages and towns,” including Shannon, for which Putnam County received some “mostly swamp land from Van Wert County.”
“Approximately 150 persons were living here by 1856, six years before incorporation,” the Lima Citizen wrote in a July 1961 story celebrating Bluffton’s centennial. “Main Street looked like a streak of dirt with hitching posts along the business district.”
By August 1861, according to Rusler, “the change was in order to have the same name” for the town (Shannon) and the post office (Croghan). “Jacob Mosier, who had come from Bluffton, Indiana, suggested the name of Bluffton. The matter of changing the name was voted on August 17, 1861, and the town was duly incorporated as Bluffton,” Rusler wrote.
That, however, was not that. It wasn’t until 1872-73, about the time the Lake Erie & Louisville reached the village, “that the name Shannon was changed to Bluffton, although long prior the latter name was bestowed upon it,” the Bluffton News wrote in September 1949.
.
.
.
SOURCE
This feature is a cooperative effort between the newspaper and the Allen County Museum and Historical Society.
LEARN MORE
See past Reminisce stories at limaohio.com/tag/reminisce
Reach Greg Hoersten at [email protected].
