Bluffton author releases local ghost story book

BLUFFTON — A book about Bluffton's ghosts has been written, just in time for Halloween. "Where Bluffton's Ghosts Sleep," the latest book by Bluffton author Fred Steiner, will be available for the first time at a book signing from 10-11:30 a.m. Saturday at the Bluffton Senior Citizens Center, 132 N. Main St. With a subtitle "Unexpected stories from a small Ohio town," the 196-page book includes what Steiner says is "every unexpected and cryptic Bluffton epic ever imagined." This is Steiner's fifth Bluffton-based history book. "You will meet ghosts from Bluffton's Maple Grove Cemetery, Harmon Field, Bluffton University, Riley Creek, the Swiss Settlement, from Ada and area ghost towns," Steiner said. "You'll also discover some very interesting characters including Hezekiah Bloomfield Hubbell whose Shifferly Road tombstone was once the spookiest place in Allen, Hancock and Hardin counties." The book contains nine chapters retelling Bluffton stories. The earliest involve Native Americans who were exiled from Allen County in the 1840s. Stories follow that era covering many decades all the way to the present, including a section on the Bluffton Middle School ghost. Other stories include an 1860s woman's fear of being buried alive; five bodies buried in the same grave during a typhoid epidemic; a UFO spotted 24 years before Roswell; a Sunday Bluffton church service attended by members of the KKK; the description of a Bluffton location where hoofed animals regularly went to die; and 300-plus bodies uncovered in a Native American burial mound not far from Bluffton. The following PowerPoint presentations, open to the public, will feature stories from the book: Hancock Historical Museum, at noon Oct. 5; Bluffton Public Library, 6 p.m. Oct. 17; Bluffton Senior Citizens Center, 2:30 p.m. Oct. 18; and the Ada Public Library, 7 p.m. Oct. 19. The book will soon be available at several Bluffton businesses including the senior center and from the author. The cost is $24.95.