Bluffton is nicknamed the "Parlor City" for its history of having some of the first clean paved streets in the area during the time of the Indiana gas boom.

They arrived as a result of the end of the Black Hawk War as well as the completion of the Erie Canal.

These were "Yankee" settlers, that is to say they were descended from the English Puritans who settled New England in the colonial era.

They were primarily members of the Congregational Church though due to the Second Great Awakening many of them had converted to Methodism and some had become Baptists before coming to what is now Bluffton.

When the New England settlers arrived in what is now Bluffton there was nothing but a dense virgin forest and wild prairie.

[5] Bluffton was platted in 1838, it was named for river bluffs near the original town site.

[7] In its early years it was a primitive, backwoods village, subject to frequent floods of the Wabash and outbreaks of malaria.

[8] Wells Country was organized in 1837 and shortly thereafter four commissioners were appointed to choose the county seat.

Mr. Abraham Studabaker and Robert C. Bennet, both landowners in Bluffton, set aside land for a county courthouse and donated US$270 (equivalent to $7,725 in 2023).

On March 9, 1838, the commissioners chose the site for the county courthouse which used the land donated by Abram Studabaker and Robert C. Bennet "with a reserve of two choice lots".

"We met at the house of Robert C. Bennett, in said county of Wells, on the first Monday of March, 1838, and have selected the west half of the northeast quarter of Section 4, Township 26, Range 12, for the site for the seat of justice of Wells County, which land was donated by Abram Studabaker with a reserve of two choice lots.

Robert C. Bennett donates the southeast fraction of the northeast corner.

"In 1848, the idea of a 10-mile planked road from Bluffton to Fort Wayne gained popularity throughout the city.

In the 1890s the construction of the iconic 5 story Richardsonian Romanesque style sandstone courthouse was completed, ushering in a new era for Bluffton and Wells County.

The railroad's Bluffton bridge collapsed on May 22, 1913, and the struggling carrier went out of business shortly thereafter.

Mayor Ted Ellis was noted in the article for his helping Bluffton become one of the first to join the National League of Cities' Partnership for Working Toward Inclusive Communities.