A Great Fall

(Click on image to enlarge)
Image courtesy of the Hobart Historical Society.

I think there was a barbershop on the second floor of the brick part of Ed Sauter's blacksmith shop, reached by means of that external wooden staircase you see in the picture. The reason I think so is because the stairs leading to "the barbershop upstairs in the Sauter building" once collapsed, and if I had to choose which part of these structures looked most likely to collapse, I'd definitely say that outdoor staircase.

The accident happened in May 1904, after Ed had sold his saloon to Claus Ziegler.

On the evening of Saturday, May 21, several young men were standing on the staircase outside the barbershop when the structure gave way beneath them and they all fell to the ground below. Some of them were badly injured, including 18-year-old Eugene Chandler, whose collar bone was broken. Apparently none of the injuries were fatal, however.

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The barber, or one of the barbers, of Ainsworth was named Lee Hunter. A few months after this incident he moved to California, and wrote back in December 1904 to say that he was not impressed with that part of the country. And that's the kind of random, useless information you can get from reading old newspapers.

Oh, and Eugene Chandler was the nephew of N.P. Banks, a Hobart farmer apparently so well known that the Gazette simply gave his name with no further identifying information.


Sources:
♦ 1900 Census.
♦ "Ainsworth Pick-Ups." Hobart Gazette 16 Dec. 1904.
♦ "General News Items." Hobart Gazette 27 May 1904.

[3/16/10 update: D'oh! Maybe N.P. Banks was well known because he was an officer and director of the First State Bank and a school trustee as well as a farmer.]