G.R. (George) Quibell

An ad for George Quibell, hairdresser appeared in the Gazette over several months in 1881 [FFG 19 Feb 1881; 2]. The business probably opened about this time and was listed regularly in D&B. By 1886 Quibell was moving to the “soon to be complete McArthur Block” [CP 5 Nov 1886; 6]. D&B also listed a restaurant in 1887 along with his barbershop, but it does not appear to have lasted the year. By the time it was announced he was leaving the village, Quibell had moved again; “Mr. George Quibell, our village tonsorial artist, has sold his business to Mr. John Jones who is already at work in the shop between Mr. Curtis’s and Mr. T. Austen’s in Mr. Jordan’s Block. Mr. Quibell is going to Toronto, where he thinks he can do better than in Fenelon Falls” [FFG 19 April 1889; 4].

Quibell and John Jones Jr. were already acquainted, having formed a syndicate in November 1884 to build a skating rink for public use on the Market Square, no doubt in competition with the one built by John Finn in 1881. “The rink is to be 35 feet wide and nearly 100 feet long”. Construction was already underway [FFG 29 Nov 1884; 2]. New dressing rooms and the roof were finished by mid-December and the rink opened once the weather was cold enough. On Tuesday January 27th 1885 a skating carnival “the first ever in this village” was held in the new rink, and Hand listed as many participants and costumes as he could. “…there was a good exhibition of plain and fancy skating, and as the costumes were excellent, the illumination brilliant, and the music by the band as good as it always is, the numerous spectators were highly delighted” [FFG 31 Jan 1885; 2]. During a thaw in late March the north half of the roof “fell in with a crash” [FFG 28 March 1885; 2]; no one was hurt, but the rink was not rebuilt; at least not by Quibell and Jones.