Reading through the old Ridgeway Journals, I came across an ad that you probably wouldn’t see in today’s papers. G. W. Hornbuckle wrote: “To all my regular patrons who have stayed with me since I started my shop, I will give a FREE BATH once every two weeks.” (Oct 12, 1893). G. W. Hornbuckle was a barber who opened his shop and bath room in 1892 in a new building built by J. W. Mount who owned a cash grocery store next door. The other half of this new building was occupied by a millinery shop.
Considering the work required to take a bath in Ridgeway in the 1890s, a free bath probably sounded pretty good to Hornbuckle’s customers. Though many people had well pumps out in their yards (still quite a few around Ridgeway), a person still would have to haul in the water from outside, heat it on a wood or coal stove and pour it into a tub. After the bath, the tub would have have to emptied. Repeat for each member of the household and bathing would be quite a chore, particularly in winter. For a single person living in a boarding house, bathing would probably be even more complicated. G. W. Hornbuckle’s bath room solved a problem for those people, even though his ad sounds funny to us.