Bluffton, Ohio

14 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1907 and the latest in 1986. It stands in Richland Township. It lies in ZIP code area 45817. It stands on Marsh Run. The Survey maps it on the Bluffton quadrangle. 3,967 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 833 feet above sea level.

Bluffton within Allen County

Then and now

1907 to 1986

The same ground, surveyed 79 years apart. Drag the handle to wipe between them. Both sheets are United States Geological Survey originals; neither has been altered.

Topographic sheet of Bluffton, surveyed 1986

Topographic sheet of Bluffton, surveyed 1907

On record in Bluffton

Buildings and businesses the archive holds for this place. Each opens its own page, with the source record it came from.

Businesses named in the fire insurance atlases 3 records

Diller, P, Mahine ShopShop, in the atlas of 1901
Opera HouseOpera House, in the atlas of 1901
Publie SchoolSchool, in the atlas of 1901

Population over time

2 figures

Bluffton fell from 4,125 to 3,967 between 2010 and 2020. These are the recorded population figures Wikidata holds for this place, reached through the Geographic Names Information System number this page is keyed on rather than by name, so they belong to this place and not to another of the same name. Most are census counts, but not all are: an early figure may be a founding or settlement estimate, and an estimate published within five years of a census is left out. The change column is computed, and is left blank where more than 20 years separate a figure from the one before it, because a gap that long is not a change between two counts.

Year	People	Change
2010	4,125
2020	3,967	-158 (-4%)

Topographic sheets covering this place

6 surveys from 14 printed sheets

Matched by testing this settlement's coordinate against the published boundary of every sheet in the United States Geological Survey's historical collection. Each opens the scanned sheet at the Survey.

1907 USGS Bluffton quadrangle1:62500, 3 printings
1950 USGS Marion quadrangle1:250000
1960 USGS Bluffton quadrangle1:24000, 4 printings
1962 USGS Marion quadrangle1:250000
1966 USGS Marion quadrangle1:250000, 3 printings
1986 USGS Marion quadrangle1:100000, 2 printings

In the county-history sources

72,153 words on this township

History of Allen County, Ohio. Containing a History of the County, Its Townships, Towns, Villages, Schools, Churches, Industries, Etc; Portraits of Early Settlers and Prominent Men; Biographies; History of the Northwest Territory; History of Ohio; Statistical and Miscellaneous Matter, Etc., Etc, published 1885 names this settlement in its chapter on Richland Township. These are the passages that mention it, exactly as the scans read.

The early schoolB of Bichland werw primitive in their oharaoter as well as teachiDg. William Bedding presided over a school of half a dozen pupils at Hilty's, while Benjamin Franklin Smith taught a few pupils in the Jog sohoolhouse on Little Biley Creek. After some years, the town was set off into school districts, and the system, now pursued, was adopted. The receipts for 1884 were $6, 131.47; the expenditures amounted to $4,845.8L There are ten school buildings valued at $14,100. Fourteen teachers are employed. The number of pupils enrolled is 940, 503 boys and 437 girls. In the Bluffton Special School District the receipts for 1884 amounted to (7,017.55, the expenditmres to $3,500,85. Number of pupils enrolled 402 - 212 boys and 190 girls. There is one school building valued at $15,000. Seven teachers are employed, of whom live are ladies.

Passage source: History of Allen County, Ohio. Containing a History of the County, Its Townships, Towns, Villages, Schools, Churches, Industries, Etc; Portraits of Early Settlers and Prominent Men; Biographies; History of the Northwest Territory; History of Ohio; Statistical and Miscellaneous Matter, Etc., Etc, published 1885.

Tfie Presbyterian Church of SotUh Bethel was organized June 6, 1849, bj Bev. Messrs. McKinney and Halliday, and the church named South Bethel. Bobert Stewart was ruling elder. In 1852 the Goble heirs donated the land on which the church building now stands, and a house was erected soon after. From 1852 to 1873, the church was called the PresbTterian Church of Shannon. In April the latter year, the name was changed to Bluffton. The pastors who have served the church are named as follows: Bevs. James Ander9on to 1850; B. M. Badeau, 1850- 51; T. P. Emerson, 1851; W. K. Brice, C. B. Van Emmons, B. H. Halliday, 1872; L G. Hall, 1878; W. C. Scott, 1878; Edward Laport, supply, 1879; and B. J. Brown, March 7, 1883, the present pastor.

Oerman Reformed Church (Emanuere) was organized as a German Reformed and Lutheran Society in 1842 by Bev. George Spengler. In 1880, under Pastor Dr. P. 6hreding, the brick church, located on northwest quarter of Section 22, near the center of the township, was erected. In 1861 the congregation was reorganized as a German Reformed Society, and, as such, adopted a constitution in accordance with that of the German Reformed Church in the United States. In 1872 a new church was formed at Bluffton, four miles distant, by a number of the members of this congregation dismissed for that purpose. The membership of the old church amounts to 200 at present The ministers who have served since the original organi^tion are George Spengler, A. Doner, C. H. Pf aft; J. Klingler, J. Reiter, Dr. P. Greding, C. Pluess, A. Schenck, and H. Rusterholz, and Rev. O. Kuhlen.

Machine-read from a century-old scan, so expect the errors a machine makes: misspelled names, dropped words, stray characters.

Read the whole chapter on Richland Township - it names this place 107 more 107 times.

Specimens collected near this place

12 of 50 shown

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. Museums hold 50 specimens collected within 10 miles of Bluffton between 1921 and 1961: 48 Animalia, 1 Plantae, 1 Fungi. 12 distinct Species records are shown. Collected by C. Nichols, , Beut. Coll., Huber, L. O. Gratz and others. Each is a physical object with a catalogue number, and each entry opens the museum's record. This is what was collected and kept, not a survey of what lives here - nothing can be concluded from a species being absent.

Species	Year	Collected by	Where, as recorded
Mycena corticalis A.H.Sm.	1941	L. O. Gratz	Bluffton
Medicago sativa L.	1961	Robert H. Gray	1 mile west of Lafayette.
Pteromalidae	1921	Huber
Ambloplites rupestris (Rafinesque, 1817)	1930	Trautman, M. B. (Milton Bernard) & Foster, R. (Robert)	Ottawa River, within central Jackson township, near Lafayette, Jackson township
Etheostoma nigrum Rafinesque, 1820	1930	Trautman, M. B. (Milton Bernard) & Foster, R. (Robert)	Ottawa River, within central Jackson township, near Lafayette, Jackson township
Lepomis megalotis (Rafinesque, 1820)	1930	Trautman, M. B. (Milton Bernard) & Foster, R. (Robert)	Ottawa River, within central Jackson township, near Lafayette, Jackson township
Micropterus salmoides (Lacepède, 1802)	1930	Trautman, M. B. (Milton Bernard) & Foster, R. (Robert)	Ottawa River, within central Jackson township, near Lafayette, Jackson township
Notropis umbratilis (Girard, 1856)	1930	Trautman, M. B. (Milton Bernard) & Foster, R. (Robert)	Ottawa River, within central Jackson township, near Lafayette, Jackson township
Notropis volucellus volucellus	1930	Trautman, M. B. (Milton Bernard) & Foster, R. (Robert)	Ottawa River, within central Jackson township, near Lafayette, Jackson township
Ameiurus melas melas (Rafinesque, 1820)	1944	Trautman, M. B. (Milton Bernard) & Myers, A. M.	Little Riley Creek, 2mi southwest of Bluffton, ~2.5 mi SW of Bluffton, Richland township
Ameiurus natalis (Lesueur, 1819)	1944	Trautman, M. B. (Milton Bernard) & Myers, A. M.	Little Riley Creek, 2mi southwest of Bluffton, ~2.5 mi SW of Bluffton, Richland township
Boleosoma nigrum nigrum (Rafinesque, 1820)	1944	Trautman, M. B. (Milton Bernard) & Myers, A. M.	Little Riley Creek, 2mi southwest of Bluffton, ~2.5 mi SW of Bluffton, Richland township

All 50 specimens within 10 miles, at the Global Biodiversity Information Facility.

Mines and quarries near this place

2 within 5 miles

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 2 workings within 5 miles of Bluffton: 1 past producer, 1 producer. 1 still produces. What was taken out: Limestone, General, Stone, Crushed/Broken. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Where	Site	Commodity	Status	Recorded
	Bluffton Stone Company	Stone, Crushed/Broken	Producer
	Bluffton Stone Company Quarry	Limestone, General	Past Producer	Sedimentary

Every working recorded in Allen County

Storms near this place

7 since 1997

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Bluffton in 7 storm reports between 1997 and 2023: 4 hail, 3 thunderstorm wind. No death or injury is recorded in these reports. Each account below is quoted exactly as the forecast office filed it, from the NOAA Storm Events Database, and each date opens the federal record of that event.

When	Event	Place named	Harm	What the report says
June 2006	Thunderstorm Wind	Bluffton	$60,000	Barn destroyed on Sugar Creek Road. Thirty seven head of cattle were trapped in the barn, eight of which died.
August 2023	Thunderstorm Wind	Bluffton	$1,000	A photo on Twitter showed a few large tree limbs were down on Main Street in Bluffton.
July 2017	Hail	Bluffton	-	Local media reported golf ball size hail.
July 1997	Thunderstorm Wind	Bluffton	-	An observer reported a wind gust to 60 mph.
July 2017	Hail	Bluffton	-	no account filed
April 2012	Hail	Bluffton	-	no account filed
July 2012	Hail	Bluffton	-	no account filed

Every storm recorded in Allen County

Newspapers printed here

1 paper

1 paper published in this town, digitised by the Library of Congress and free to read. Every page is searchable, so a name or a street can be looked for directly in what the town printed about itself at the time.

Newspaper	Published
The Bluffton News	1875 to Current

Nearest settlements

The eight closest, with where each one stands in the county. Distances are straight-line, computed from the Geographic Names Information System coordinates.

Place	Distance	Sheets
Rockport	6.1 miles	15
Beaverdam	6.3 miles	13
Beaver Dam Station	6.3 miles	13
Lafayette	9.8 miles	13
West Cairo	11.1 miles	15
Maysville	11.2 miles	16
Cairo	11.3 miles	15
Slabtown	11.3 miles	15

Elsewhere

Matched on this settlement's Geographic Names Information System number rather than its name, so it cannot be a different place of the same name in another state.

Wikipedia article on Bluffton	An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q282552	The structured record the population and elevation above come from. Public domain (CC0).

Provenance

This settlement is recorded in the Geographic Names Information System as feature 1064461. The sheet list is computed by point-in-boundary test against the United States Geological Survey's historical topographic inventory. Both are works of the United States government and carry no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.

Specimens. Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF), https://www.gbif.org/. Only records licensed CC0 or CC BY are used. Records licensed CC BY-NC are excluded because this site carries advertising. Images are checked individually and any whose licence is non-commercial, no-derivatives or unreadable is refused.

Mines and quarries. USGS Mineral Resources Data System (MRDS) https://mrdata.usgs.gov/mrds/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.

Storms. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/stormevents/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105. Narratives are quoted verbatim from the National Weather Service report and are not edited or summarised.