Both tears and smiles may be recalled as we conjure up recollections, of experiences at the village barbershop―tears that flowed down the cheeks of a young mother as she watched her first-born son shorn of his first curly tresses and smiles of anticipation as a lad was being “duded up” for his first date.
Grooming for the pioneer men of the county seems to have been totally administered at home. The lady of the house managed with her trusty shears to cut neatly around the bottom of a bowl that she had fitted over the male’s head. This barbering technique seemed to bring about a uniformity of style. Shaving, if done at all, was accomplished by the master using a straight razor.
The arrival of the railroads brought travelers into the towns, and they were in need of an accommodation to provide for their grooming. Not only were haircuts and shaves needed, but a tub and plenty of hot water for a bath also were necessary. Among those first documented barbers operating in Marion County in the 1850s were Edward Davenport at Salem and John Zick and Anton Young at Centralia. Zick, in the Feb. 29, 1856, Central City Gazette, advertised “cupping, leaching, and bleeding done at reasonable prices.” It is interesting to note that of the first dozen barbers in the county, half came from the black community. The first female barber worked in a shop in the Park Hotel in Salem in 1890.
Following the Civil War, barbers were kept busy in every corner of the county. The shops came in assorted shapes and sizes―a store room in a business block, a frame shanty, a basement arrangement or a room in connection with the barber’s residence. These were almost always adorned with a barber pole, the peppermint stick insignia, which proclaims that barbers, in an earlier day, were practitioners of medicine or at least the art of bleeding patients. The number of tilt-back barber chairs was dependent on how many the traffic would allow. In the early days, there was often a nicely spindeled rack containing an assortment of individually decorated mugs for those who preferred them. In each mug was a cake of soap and a brush. Stacks of clean towels and cloths were handy. Behind the barber chair was the mirror along with bottles containing witch hazel, bay rum and sweet-smelling tonics.
In addition to scissors, the instruments of the trade included the straight razor sharpened by the explosive slaps on a strop or by careful honing on an oilstone. The hand clippers often appeared to pull as much hair as they cut and could be considered instruments of torture. A chunk of alum was available in case of a razor nick. Stoves fueled by wood, coal or kerosene were vital not only for heating but also to provide the ever-needed hot water.
The benches and assorted chairs which lined the wall, with cuspidors appropriately placed nearby, were throughout the day occupied by customers, magazine readers, casual visitors and chronic complainers. Local news was dispensed, interspersed with rumor and gossip. Tall tales were spun and passed along. Likewise, religious, social, economic and political issues were discussed, sometimes intelligently, according to John W. Allen. In his book, “It Happened in Southern Illinois,” Allen wrote, “The barbershops vied with the general store, blacksmith shop, the railroad station and the livery stable for recognition as the town’s forum.... Debate and argument were animated.... The barbershop definitely changed when sanitary standards were established by law. Barbers were required to pass examinations, and inspectors began to make their rounds.” Soon, with the coming of electricity, the hand clippers disappeared, and, in 1946, Centralia barbers raised their prices to 75 cents for a haircut and 50 cents for a shave.
An incomplete list of early Marion County barbers includes:
CENTRALIA -John Zick (1856), Anton Young (1859), Charles Smith (1864), Jere Jasper (1881), Jacob Touve (1882), Charles Labrell (1884), H. Wolfe (1885), A.N. Montgomery (1885), Charles C. Meyer (1885), S.A. Wilkinson (1886), T.J. Jones (1886), J.D. Bruce (1887), Frank Farmer (1887), John Scott (1888), A.E. Quick (1888), James Connor (1888), Joe Lee (1888), Alex Posten (1889), F.H. Bauer (1899), H.C. Ricks (1899), F.S. Campbell (1899), Touve Bros; (1899), J.S. Neal, Jack Clore (1909), George Green (1909), Herbert Johnson (1920), Lon Hazelwood (1921), A.E. Densmore (1924), Wooters and Duncan (1926), R.O. Logan (1926), Burton Lipe (1926), J.F. Whittenbrink (1926), A.C. Schleuter (1926), R.E. Hale (1926), Burge and Stonecipher (1926), Bill Murray (1926), Lender and Werner (1930), Glen Duncan and W.E. Taylor (1930), Charles O. Sitter (1930), Fay Harp and Dewey Maxfield (1931), Cecil Baker (1931), Edger Perry (1931), L.L. ........missing text