The Bluffton news. [volume] (Bluffton, Ohio) 1875-current, 1950-03-16
Fragrance OF A.
Blossom

toI llIG SlCas, peise VI piSo1iies @AItsosl
Blossom, fat, forty, full-faced and
bald, moved from Maine to Van Vert
County back in 1924 and settled in
a log cabin clearing about a mile
south of Wiltshire. Deep in the Ohio
the county then had only
a handful of residents other than
Blossom, his wife, Mercy, and their
large family of The Great.
The Blossoms had named their
children: Horatio Gates, Edward
Preble, Ira Allan, Benjamin Frank
lin, Smith Matthias, James Monroe,
John Quincy Adams, Catherine Beth
iah and Mary something or other,
whose greatness is forgotten.
Though Blossom imagined himself
second Benjamin Franklin, he at
tanned no prominence until he came
to Van Vert County, where, by his
own vote, he was elected justice
of the peace. Back in Maine the
station he had been able to attain
was that of a county schoolmaster.
Great Are Bald?
Once in conversation with Capt.
James Riley, first settler in the
county, Blossom said: "Have you
ever noticed that all great men were
bald? Yessir, julius Caesar of old;
our John Quincy Adams, and Ben
iamin Franklin. Then Blossom
took off his own hat. "Did you ever
notice that | too, am bald?"
In the woods on his way home
Blossom heard someone calling to
him: "Who, Who, Who-who are
you, ah?" And even after he had
answered: II am Esquire Ansel
Blossom" the question was repeated
from a limb before big white ow'
flew away.
Blossoms election to justice of the
peace was right down Philip Trout.
ner's alley. Phil and Beulah Bolen.
baugh wanted to be married but Phi
never had been away from home ane
had postponed the ceremonies in.
definitely rather than go so far away
as st. Mary's or Fort Wayne. Now
with Blossom only week before
made justice of the peace, he was
entitled to perform the sacred rites
and the nuptials could come off with.
out further delay.
First Van Vert County Wedding
1t was the first wedding in Var
Vert County and the marriage die
take place-but not without a BIZ
more unexpected delay.
Squire Blossom. on the morning OF
the scheduled wedding, went out to
his milk house to get cream for
breakfast and saw a "weathers-
field kitten, skunk to you and me,
drinking milk from one of the pans
Deliberately the squire walked back
into the house and asked Mercy for
the fire shovel. What do you wan,
it for?" the wife inquired.
"You'll be advised presently
Squire Blossom told her impressively
and with the shovel walked out OF
the kitchen in great dignity.
He found the polecat with its head
over the pan and brought the shovel
down quickly on its neck, crammine
it's head into the milk. The Squire
intended to drown the striped little
beauty. These cute little varmits
have defense and are quicker with
it than the old fashioned forked
lightning.
Stark Tragedy
The Squire was stone blind for
minutes after that but finally made
his way to the cabin, where he
shouted for Mercy to help him into
the house and to find something else
for him to put on. His clothes, in
| cluding the only white cotton shirt
with it's high starched collar, which
he wore only on state occasions, had
to be deodorized by burying. The
great collar gave his bald head the
appearance of being held up by the
ears and he had intended to impress
all with it at the Troutner-BeIen-
baugh wedding.
Still loath to go to st. Marys or
Fort Wayne, Phillip Troutner put off
the ceremonies for few more
weeks-util the taint of annoint-
ment had worn away. The whole
settlement learned of the squire's
losing battle with the cute little
kitten and old men, fifty years later,
would sniff and wrinkle their noses
in passing the neighborhood, declar-
ing that something aromatic still
fingered somewhere here-abouts."
As to the end of Squire Ansel
Blossom, nothing definite was remem-
bered other than that he was believ-
ed to have been one of the victims
of the great Asiatic Cholera scourge
which swept the Wiltshire neighbor-
hood in summer, 1854.
Son Gains Fame
Squire Blossoms illustrious son,
Ira Allen, with Robert McMannis
and Willis Major, were the trio who
ministered to the whole town during
the Wiltshire cholera Epidemic For
that alone Ira Allen Blossom gained