Historic Bremen

Theodore Bauer served Bremen as a barber for seven decades, starting in his brother Oliver’s shop in 1896 moving four or five times to shops on N Center street (depending on whether or not you count replacing an old wood-frame building with a new brick one) and eventually working out of his home.

In the 1920s, he entered the music business and sold sheet music, records, phonographs, and radio sets—as well as his beloved cigars—out of his barber shop, which is today the Steve Weaver Arts shop at 113 N Center St. That’s the brick building he built in 1913.

Theodore married Arzeltha Hans and had three children: Dorothy (Hadley), Walter, and Harold. Walter was also a music-lover and is well-remembered by older Bremen residents as a teacher of piano lessons.

The Bauer family donated a number of family photos and documents to Historic Bremen, including even some letters between Theodore and the company who made his toupees, which he also promoted. If he couldn’t provide you with barber services, he might be able to set you up with a substitute.

Theodore Bauer lived to be 94, dying in 1974.

We have an album of Theodore Bauer family research.

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