Jesse Pettibone
The Shelbyville News
Saturday May 22, 1948
Page 3
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JESSE PETTIBONE
(Picture)
By Ave Lewis
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Without splitting more than a few million hairs it can be said that
Jesse
Pettibone of the Coers barber shop has snipped away enough of the
stuff that caused Sampson’s downfall to fill 19,875 mattresses.
Mr. Pettibone marked his 61st year in the barber business on May 7 and while
he wouldn’t hazard a guess about the mattresses, he did volunteer that he
averages 70 haircuts a week. That would figure something like 212,040 shearings
in the 61 years. And since we "borrowed" the results of one haircut (a
full fledged one that is, not one from the shiny-pated row) and found it weighed
three-fourths of an ounce—well, if anyone is reading this, they can take it
from there—but figure on a 50-pound mattresses.
Anyway, Mr. Pettibone has been in the barbering business since he was 15
years old. But he’s a frustrated newspaperman at heart. "I always wanted
to be in your business," he said, "but my parents didn’t like the
idea.
"They thought the barber business would be nice, clean work,"
he
continued with a grimace, "and once I got into it I was afraid to try
anything else because it was all I knew.
So his only venture into the newspaper game was a brief stint as a printer’s
devil with the old Republican office on the corner of Franklin and
Harrison Streets.
He started lathering faces and using clippers at the same shop where he now
is employed. It was operated then by Henry Friday and the work apparently
hasn’t been too distasteful because during the years he’s built up a large
clientele and his friends are legion. As he talked he clipped the hair of
Dr. R. F. Barnard and they decided that "Doc" is one of his oldest
customers. He’s been waiting for Jesse’s chair for 35 years.
Mr. Pettibone was born in Indianapolis but came here when he was seven years
of age. He remembers when cows, pigs and other livestock roamed at large in the
Public Square and his description of a cow getting his horns fastened in a
barrel in front of the Deprez store is worth hearing.
After working in the Friday shop he was employed at the
Big Six shop
for 23 years and also operated seven establishments of his own . One of these was
on South Harrison Street where the Bogemann hat store now is located and
others were on East Washington Street where J.C. Penney store and the
Ford
Company now stand. He’s been working at the Coers shop for the past six
years.
Mr. Pettibone and his wife, Augusta, live at 483 West Hendricks Street
and that’s been Jesse’s home for 63 years. A quiet bit of fishing is his
favorite recreation.
Contributed by Barb Huff
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