botzum was platted in 1836 on 100 acres (0.4 km²) as niles by peter voris and some of his associates. the village was never actually built, though, due to the panic of 1837. eventually the lots were sold off, one of them to george botzum. in 1866 the buckeye post office opened up. in spite of this name, though, the railroad depot in town was called botzum. the name of the post office was also changed to botzum in 1893 to match the name of the depot.