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When Santa Claus lived in Bluffton

Posted by Paula Scott on December 24, 2023 - 6:00am

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.

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Historical Bluffton
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Lobster and oysters on 1898 Bluffton Christmas dinner

Posted by Staff on December 17, 2023 - 8:11am

By Fred Steiner
www.BlufftonForever.com

Blue point oysters, bisque of lobster, baked shad with piquant sauce, cheese straws, Philadelphia capon, Roman punch, cream tartlets with foam sauce…and, we’ve not yet mentioned the roasts on the menu.

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Historical Bluffton
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When Bluffton's CVS was a clothing and shoe store

Posted by Staff on December 10, 2023 - 6:00am

By Fred Steiner
www.BlufftonForever.com

The Main Street Bluffton building housing today’s CVS Pharmacy served the community as a retail business for nearly 125 years. Originally the building housed two businesses, one on the north side and the other on the south.

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Historical Bluffton
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One century plus 12 years ago

Posted by Paula Scott on December 3, 2023 - 7:47am

By Fred Steiner
www.BlufftonForever.com

Question: When did Bluffton High School first offer a girls’ basketball team?
Answer: We aren’t certain, but we are getting closer to the answer.

We’ve pushed it back to 1911, thanks to a photo in the collection of Rose Harvey, whose grandmother, Clara Fett Andrews, was on the team.

Here’s the sophomore girls’ basketball team from that year. We know this because the basketball reads “Soph – 1911.”

And, 1911 was the first year that Bluffton had its own high school building. Prior to that all 12 grades were housed in one building on Jackson Street.

This team played games either in the 1911 BHS building, where the gym eventually became the band room. Or, they played games in a building behind The Food Store which was also a roller rink. We know that boys teams played in both locations.

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Historical Bluffton
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The day in 1880 when a Cheyenne lectured in Bluffton

Posted by Staff on November 26, 2023 - 8:40am

By Fred Steiner
www.BlufftonForever.com

Imagine attending a lecture in Bluffton presented by a Cheyenne speaking from the point of view of native Americans just four years after the Battle of Little Bighorn.

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Historical Bluffton
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A story about a woman who voted in Bluffton in 1915

Posted by Staff on November 19, 2023 - 6:00am

By Fred Steiner
www.BlufftonForever.com

The 19th amendment guaranteed all American women the right to vote on Aug. 1920.

Despite that date, a brief notation in my grandmother’s diary reads: “I went to vote and Margaret and Florence went with me. Margaret is one year old, Nov. 2, 1915.”

The note with the 1915 date confused me. I knew that women did not receive their constitutional right to vote until the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was ratified.

So, how could she vote in 1915?

CONTINUES

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