Annual Rio Grande Bean Dinner

“After four years and 618,000 deaths, the American Civil War ended… For those who returned from the Civil War, meetings, programs and parades were planned in their honor”, wrote Leith, in a history of the Rio Grande Bean Dinner. “In August of 1868, the people of the village of Vinton, Ohio, prepared beans, hardtack and black coffee in a grove of trees on the banks of Raccoon Creek. In the summer of 1870, the village of Rio Grande began its custom of the community Bean Dinner to honor the living veterans of the Civil War.” The dinner has been held annually since that time and has served to honor those veterans.