The Bluffton news. [volume] (Bluffton, Ohio) 1875-current, 1949-07-07
ESTIMATE 10000
SAW BLUFFTON'S
PIONEER PARADE
Largest Crowd Ever i'm BlufftOn
Lines Streets Here Satur-
day Night
COlOrful Line of March One and
One-half Miles Long Draws
Cheers

better parade than the yarlety-laQen
Forty-Niner Gold Rush which per-
fectly recreated a pioneer atmos-
phere as it stretched along its
astonishing one and one-half mile
length on Main street here last
Saturday evening.
And Bluffton never had larger
crowd than the turnout of more
than 10000 spectators who crowded
every inch of the 10-block long
parade route, jammed to overliowing
this village of $500, and parked
their automobiles all the way to the
city limits.
The parade started promptly at
7:30 from Schmidt's field moving
east on Cherry street to Railroad
street, up College avenue, over Har-
mon road onto Poplar street where
it entered South Main street and
moved north, passing the brilliantly
illuminated judges stand in front OF
the Presbyterian church at 5 o'clock.
Both sides of Main street were
lined with spectators along the en-
tire line of march and lawns and
porches in the residence sections
were turned into improvised grand
stands and filled with chairs and
camp stools.
Even the weather was perfect for
the pioneer-favored event which in
augurated Bluffton's holiday week
end celebration. With the arrival oi
surdowri, the heat wave abateC
somewhat, there was a cooling
breeze, and a bright moon and
twinkling stars beamed down from
a cloudless sky as the big event
swung down Main street on its fina
lap just at dusk.
Cheers and applause from spectat-
ors punctuated the snappy tempo Of
band music as what seemed to be
an interminable procession of cos
TUNED pioneers, rumbling prairie
schooners, old-time buggies, hacks
sleighs, mounted horsemen and other
featured entries marched along thf
jammed parade route.
Many Features
It was a display of sparkling
brilliance which topped anything
ever produced in this part of the
state in the way of pioneer celebra.
tions, and it was by far Bluffton's
biggest and most outstanding com
munity event of all time.
Variety marked the one and one
half mile long parade. There were
prairie schooners of every size ane
description, including two which
actually made trips west, one 101
years old and the other nearing tht
century mark.
One schooner was drawn by /,
plodding OK team; teams of heavy
draft horses pulled the others, ant
there were two smaller entries
uAdWI Ds poiiSS.
In front of and following th'
numbering wagons were bearded
costumed horsemen; mounted trouba
dors; rifemen and Indians.
Prospectors With Burros
Plodding along the search of th,
precious metal which provided tn
Gold-Rush parade theme were foot
sore prospectors, leading and some
times dragging heavily laden burros
Another outstanding feature wa
cleaning black, horse-drawl
funeral coach of the Nineties, fol
lowed by a mourner's hack, and wit
the drivers attired in the high ha
formal black costume of that day.
An old-time six-passenger sleig
dashed merrily along through fiel
of artificial snow on another larg
float, and there was another sleig
on wheels in another part of tn
parade.
Buggies, hansoms, hackneys, car
riages, buckboards and other convey
ances of yesteryear also had featui
ed spots in the parade; and an uf
usual touch was one old-time bugg
which ratified by, drawn by twc
wheeled garden tractor.
A numbering medicine man
wagons sign reading in part ID
Hursey's Marvellous Discovery. Drin
Or Rub On rivalled for cleverne,
the insurance firms entry shown
cleaning hot Goals, above which we
emblazoned "Cold Cash for HI
Ashes"
Dude On Bicycle
Bill Edwards as dude of tt
Continued on page 81