What is the oldest structure in the village of Bluffton? And, what was its use?
The structure could pre-date Shannon, meaning it was here when the very first settlers called this area Croghan in the 1830s.
The structure is on the Riley Creek bank at the bend of Thurman Street, across from the EMS building.
It is the remains of a lime kiln and ashery used in making soap.
On your next trip down Thurman notice the mound across from the EMS building. If you stand on the mound and look down at the creek bank you will see the remains of the limestone foundation of the kiln.
Why soap?
As European settlers arrived in northwestern Ohio after 1832 they began clearing the heavily-wooded countryside. That set the stage for one of the town’s earlier industries: asheries. These operated using a by-product of that land clearing.
Ashes obtained from trees burned to open up fields were treated in the asheries to obtain lye, essential during this period in the making of soap.
It appears that Shannon had at least two asheries, perhaps even three.
Ashes treated in the log-lined pits sunk deep into the ground were purchased from farmers clearing their land.
As they burned the timbers in huge piles the remaining ash piles were loaded onto wagons and brought to Bluffton where they could be sold for a moderate cash return.
At the asheries, the ashes were piled in deep pits made up of layers of crossed sticks and straw followed by ashes and repeated the depth of the pit.
Water was allowed to trickle through this pit bleaching the ashes and producing raw lye in the process.
This was siphoned off from a trough in the bottom. From this lye, Bluffton pioneers made soap.
Today all that remains of this early structure are the crude limestone foundations to the kiln. Three forces are at work destroying it: weather, continual erosion of the creek bank and trees growing along the creek bank.
What became of the kiln? As fewer trees were removed and burned, the lime kiln eventually ceased operations and closed. We aren’t even certain when this took place, but it was probably a gradual decline.
In the past 60 years the stream has worn away the land that originally occupied that area of the lime kiln, eating into the rock underlying it.
And today, this location is part of forgotten Bluffton.
Much of the information of this article is from “Town and the Fork of the Rileys.” The photos were taken this summer.
