Here's a photo of the 1913 Bluffton flood, which occurred between March 23 and 27, 1913. The flood was much wider than the Riley, as many streams across Ohio flooded.
The Feb. 28, 2011, flood was devastating, but imagine cleaning up after the 1913 flood. Here's a photo of that flood taken on Cherry Street. The building on the very far left houses the Village Cut 'n' Curl today.
The building at the right was a Triplett storage building. Believe it or not, a fire occurred in the building during the height of the flood, probably caused by a short circuit. Bluffton firemen put out the fire, somehow.
The next building was the Phillip Wilch buggy shop. The next two-room building was the Ed Jones Furniture Store.
When George Combs joined Jones in the business, the furniture store was moved to the former Art Amstutz Grocery room, as Jones and Combs. The Amstutz grocery was on Main Street in the building housing The Food Store today.
Following that, T.A. Kitchen used the two Cherry Street buildings as agent for the International Harvester Co. The site eventually became the Monroe Amstutz auto and salvage lot. Today the land is owned by Harold Rau.
A word about this photo: the photographer is unknown and not everyone owned a camera 100 years ago. It would appear that the photographer took this photo from a boat. If you believe snapping this photo was as easy as taking a shot from your cell phone, think again. Click here to view the cameras available in 1913.
CLICK ON IMAGE TO ENLARGE
