By Fred Steiner
www.BlufftonForever.com
Over the decades Bluffton residents lift up several memorable individuals to a sacred list known as “Bluffton characters.” One of those special people was Lazarus “Lotzy” Basinger, (also known as Santa Claus) a familiar face in the Bluffton crowd over his 90-year life span.
These special people each developed a niche of their own calling, earning respect from the common citizen. Their traits and stories are recalled by many, although they are unknown by today’s younger and newer residents.
To us, their contributions to what makes Bluffton such an interesting and accepting community cannot be ignored.
Lazarus was probably one of the last people in Bluffton who experience way of life of the earliest Swiss immigrants. He was raised on his father’s farm near Pandora, Riley Township, Putnam County, Ohio.
Lazarus "Lotzy" Basinger, a Bluffton fixture who died in 1964, was known by all the youngsters in town as Santa Claus, as this photo taken by Paul Diller suggests.
In Bluffton, Lazarus was considered a “local town character.” He was one of several colorful men, who were known by everyone and frequently were seen on Main Street in the 1950s and 1960. In his late years he seemed to have a carefree lifestyle.
Lazarus “Lotzy” Basinger was the great-grandson Christian Riesenbach Böesiger (1770-1844), of one of the original Swiss immigrants to the Bluffton community.
Lazarus was probably one of the last people in Bluffton who experience the way of life of the earliest Swiss immigrants. He was raised on his father’s farm near Pandora, Riley Township, Putnam County, Ohio.
Lazarus was a brick layer by trade. One of his final projects was creating the base that once held the Bluffton school bell as its original site was on the alley between Jackson and Lawn. The bell was eventually moved to the front of the middle school when that building was constructed.
Today “Böesiger” and its many different German spellings is Americanized to “Basinger.”
His grandfather, Christian (Black) Böesiger (1795-1880) immigrated as a child with his parents from Belfort, Alsace, France, in the 1830s.
Lazarus, born Dec. 1, 1874, was one of 11 children born to Benjamin Basinger and Mary Anna Zurfluh (also spelled Zurflugh). Both parents were first-generation children born in the Settlement to families of the earliest immigrants.
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