Wednesday, July 22, 2015

Working on Wednesday: Jeremiah Tibbetts, Emperor of the West!, Barber and Hairdresser in early Cincinnati

From page 146 of the 1819 Farnsworth Cincinnati city directory

My Tibbetts clan moved from Maine about 1816 to the greater Cincinnati, Ohio area (Ohio, Indiana, and Kentucky), and I suspect Jeremiah is some sort of cousin of mine, although how I have yet to determine.  Generally the Tibbetts men seemed to be involved in things like tanning, glass blowing, and river boat captaining, so a hair dresser in the midst was a most unexpected find.

As yet I have not found any advertising for this Emperor of the West! in Cincinnati newspapers, but I did find some contemporary advertisements in other states to get a flavor of what might have been offered at Jeremiah's establishment:

John Rolington, Hair Dresser and Barber, in Frederick-town, Maryland in 1818.  Advertisement. Date: Saturday, July 4, 1818   Paper: Republican Gazette and General Advertiser (Fredericktown, Maryland)   Page: 3  From GenealogyBank.com  

William DeVaughn, Barber & Hair Dresser, in Alexandria, Virginia in 1822.  Advertisement  Date: Saturday, June 1, 1822   Paper: Alexandria Gazette (Alexandria, Virginia)   Page: 1  From GenealogyBank.com

J. Murray, Barber and Hairdresser, in Cincinnati, Ohio, in 1829 (possible a successor to Jeremiah Tibbets?). Advertisement
Date: Saturday, May 23, 1829   Paper: Cincinnati Chronicle and Literary Gazette (Cincinnati, Ohio)   Volume: 3   Issue: 21   Page: 3  From GenealogyBank.com
Example of hair a la Titus. Mother and Child by A. Buck, 1808 (detail). From the V&A Museum.  taken from Jessamyn's Regency Costume Companion (a nice little site, BTW).



What fashionable men of the time might aspire to.  from Litho of a self-portrait by Jean-Louis-Andre-Theodore Gericault 1816, taken from Jessamyn's Regency Costume Companion 

Edited to add:
Jeremiah has apparently intrigued interested parties for almost a century, as he is mentioned in this 1919 Cincinnati newspaper article on past Cincinnati "tonsorial artists" (hat tip Pat Hartley):

Clipped from The Cincinnati Enquirer, 10 Jul 1919, Thu, Page 6.  From Newspapers.com


© 2015 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

2 comments:

  1. There was an Emperor of the West barber in San Leandro, CA in the 1860 census! Age 39, said to be from Tennessee.

    ReplyDelete