Sunday, May 5, 2024

Bit of History - November 1, 2023

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.