History's Echoes
A little off the top...
By SHARON BAUMBAUGH

Lance "Lover" Roscoe worked for many years in the barber shop at 17 Center Square (now an antique shop). Here, and along other streets of the town, were located those barber shops that became special meeting places for many men of the community.

I guess it could be the "shop around the corner" where many men of the town went to have their hair cut, a shave or whatever else it is that they do in these establishments foreign to most women of the time period. Here is not the place of idle gossip or stories about the guy down the street or the business man or woman, surely not (yeah, right, and I have some swamp land in

Florida and a bridge in Brooklyn to sell). This was the place to join in intellectual conversation, discussion of the latest doings in the political arena and the most recent discovery or invention that would promote business both locally and at large… Or, maybe this was the place to argue about the umpire's call at last night's game, or the policeman who wrote a parking ticket for a

special customer, or whose son was seeing

whose daughter.

An 1870 Valley Echo advertisement offered the Magic Comb by mail for $1. This device was said to change any colored hair or beard to a permanent black or brown. It contained no poison and anyone could use it. One would be sent to the purchaser from the company in Springfield, Mass. This was at the time when most men had their hair cut at home, by mother, sister or wife. However, there were barber shops that smelled of hair tonic and special after shave, where strops were located to hone razors, and shelves lined a wall where customers kept their own shaving mug.

In 1904, D.S. Rine, the barber, had a handsomely finished pole placed in front of his shop on West Baltimore Street. The pole was painted white and finished in black and gold, the work of Henry Straley. That same year, the beginning of April, Patterson "Jack" Dixon entered the barber business working in the shop operated by Rench and George Lewis.

Mr. Rine retired in 1926 after an active business life, when he sold his barber shop on Center Square to Hubert Kline of North Allison Street. Mr. Rine was in the business for almost 50 years. Mr. Rine had learned the trade in the barber shop of Edward Sheads, in his Greencastle shop. In 1882 he purchased his employer's business and moved to a room in the National Hotel Building. When the hotel building was remodeled, he moved to another room in the same building, next to the Henson & Stellar Bakery.

That same year, 1926, was the year that Greencastle's barbers resolved that after April 1, the cost of a haircut would be 35 cents instead of 25 cents. They explained that the rate had remained the same while those in the same profession in other towns had raised their prices.

In 1928 Clyde E. Kendall, at the age of 16, decided to become a barber. Working with Shelly Wagner in what was known as Wagner's Barbershop at 7 S. Carlisle St., he learned that the trade was a long, hard job. In 1934, the business name changed from Wagner's to "Bud's" when Kendall bought the business from Mr. Wagner's widow.

Jack Dixon began with George Lewis Jr., the owner of his late father's barber business then located in the Heilman building in downtown Greencastle. Lewis was first barber, Dixon was the second barber, having served his apprenticeship with Lewis. In 1917, Dixon left Lewis' shop to join C.K. White in his shop, also located in the downtown area. Lance "Lover" Roscoe came to learn the trade and work as the second barber with Lewis. This lasted until Mr. Lewis' death in 1937. "Lover" and "Jack" began a partnership that lasted until Dixon's death in 1963, The business name was Dixon & Roscoe or Roscoe & Dixon.

(C.K. "Kinnie" White worked as a barber for many years, also serving as barber inspector for Franklin, Adams, Fulton, Cumberland and Huntingdon counties. His salary in 1939 was set at $1,820 per year. He might be known to more readers as the father of Kathleen "Katty" White Grosh who, for many years, served as the registrar for the triennial Old Home Week celebrations.)

Lewis Jr. learned the trade of barbering, along with his brothers, from their father, Lewis Sr. who learned the trade while serving as one of Greencastle's Civil War soldiers, with Company C, 25th Colored Infantry, stationed in Florida in defense of Pensacola Harbor. He ran a barber shop in the room under what is now Creative Moments Photography, down the steps under those large, metal doors in the sidewalk between the photo shop and the Echo Pilot office. Eventually, "Junior" moved the business to its long-standing location at 17 Center Square (the spot under the photo shop would become an eatery in later years).

During this time, in August 1926, other barber business was happening. Aaron Stumbaugh sold his concern on East Baltimore Street to Nathaniel Walck of Red Lion, formerly of Greencastle. Mr. Stumbaugh would retire after 30 years experience in the trade.

Some others who served their apprenticeship following instruction, with Roscoe, were Glenn Starliper, Millard Rock and John Stahl, who would eventually have their own shops. There were others through the years, maybe we can "talk" about them another time.

During those earlier years the men had their own personal shaving mugs - some with monograms, names or an emblem depicting their own occupation - and their own razors. These are now found in antique shops with prices a little higher than the original. And, today, barbers cut women's hair and beauticians cut men's hair. What would those earlier tonsorial parlors think of that!?

NOTE: My thanks to Dick Gingrich for explaining the, to my thinking, odd name of the Terrapig Tribunal mentioned in an earlier "History's Echoes": Terra is Latin for earth, or ground, and pig is also a hog - groundhog; tribunal is a court of justice or a place set aside for judges. According to Mr. Gingrich, whose father was a member of this organization, they were a group who met to eat, many times in Potter's Restaurant. The conversation during those sessions, no doubt, turned to politics and other matters of great importance with suggestions on how each and every situation should be handled.