The Oldest Barbershop in Cape Girardeau County: Barbershop witnesses 128 of history in Jackson

Matt Sullivan trims up a client at Jackson Family Barber Shop in Jackson. The barbershop opened in 1896.

Photo by Justin White

Jackson Family Barber Shop has been operating in uptown Jackson for 128 years, making it the oldest barber shop in Cape Girardeau County. Throughout the years, the name, ownership and even location have changed, but the top-quality service and barbershop feel remain the same. According to current owner and master barber Matt Sullivan, “It’s more than just a haircut. It’s family.”

Sullivan, originally from Southern Illinois, moved to Jackson and started working at the barber shop in 2006, before buying the shop in 2021. When his children were younger, they hung out in the barber shop after school. Today, his daughter Matti Sullivan is an apprentice at the shop. There’s a bit of a technical challenge, since he’s left-handed and she’s right-handed, but together, they’ve figured it out.

Jackson Family Barber Shop serves clients from ages 2 to 95; Sullivan says he has gotten to know customers’ ups and downs and their celebrations and losses, and has watched toddlers grow into college graduates. Spending time with the same people week after week and month after month helps to build long-lasting relationships.

“Both of us are very outgoing,” Matti says of herself and her dad. “When people come in, they know we are going to laugh and have a conversation with them.”

Much like a women’s hair salon or coffeehouse, barber shops are known for being a place for men to gather and get the latest news. When customers come in, Sullivan does his best to keep things light, interesting and fun. With most haircuts lasting 15 minutes, men know they can make an appointment for over their lunch break or pop in throughout the day, and chances are, the same person will be available to cut their hair.

Jackson Family Barber Shop stands in uptown Jackson. Throughout the years, the shop has remained continuously open, even as it has switched owners and names and moved locations.

Photo by Justin White

Since opening in 1896, Jackson Family Barber Shop has offered haircuts, full beard trims, goatee and mustache trims. While they used to offer a straight razor shave, this service was discontinued in 2020 due to the difficulty of purchasing quality blades.

According to a 2023 article published in The Cash-Book Journal, the original shop was located on High Street and Main Street under the name Hoffmeisters Barber Shop. In the mid-1960s, Jack Hoffmeister sold it to Don Rees, and the name changed to Rees Family Barber Shop. When the Rees family retired, Larry Harris acquired the shop, and sold it to Paula Mills, who renamed it Jackson Family Barber Shop. Michael Mays took ownership from 2006 to 2021 before retiring and selling it to Sullivan.

Even with multiple owners and locations, many things have stayed the same, including the two barber chairs that sit in the shop that have been around since the 1940s.

“They’ve been reupholstered, but nothing else,” Sullivan says. “Those chairs have seen close to one million haircuts.”

Sullivan says he feels blessed to be a part of the community in Jackson and enjoys working with people, young and old. He says one of the best parts of his job is spinning kids around in the chair after their haircut to see the big smile on their face and filling them up with candy.

Kelsey Spain has brought her 6-year-old son Henry to Jackson Family Barber Shop for the past five years. In the beginning, her husband Jason had to sit in the chair and hold Henry. Now, Henry sits all by himself.

“The first several [haircuts] were pretty traumatizing [for Henry], but Matt did not discourage us from coming back,” Spain says. “He’s extremely patient and let Henry calm down before continuing. If I offer him one sucker, Matt says, ‘Take a handful.’ We love it here.”

One of three vintage barber chairs sits inside of Jackson Family Barber Shop. The chair has been in the shop since the 1940s.

Photo by Justin White

Bryan Kiefer has been coming to the shop since he moved to Jackson 23 years ago. In 2018, Sullivan and previous owner Michael May presented him with a trophy for most haircuts in a year.

“I came every week. So, 52 haircuts in a year,” Kiefer says. “It was just a made-up trophy, but it was fun. These days, I’m about twice a month.”

When a new customer comes in, Sullivan knows there’s a good chance they will keep coming back. Many of his clients have been visiting the shop throughout their whole lives, and some for 40 to 50 years, well before his time working at the shop. Sullivan says taking ownership in 2021 and recovering from a worldwide pandemic was tough on business. Throughout the past few years, he’s put energy toward marketing and maintaining a social media presence, something he never had to do before.

“[Being the owner of a long-standing business in Jackson] is big shoes to fill,” Sullivan says. “This shop has been opened through every major war, the Depression and each global event, but it was Covid that almost took us out.”

Since many of his clients are older, Sullivan understood the decline. But as a business owner, he felt the responsibility to keep things “going and growing,” looking for new ways to update and stay relevant. He also looks for ways to give back.

In 2023, after learning about the food needs of students at Jackson R-2 schools, Sullivan started a donation bucket in his shop to collect money for the Power Packs program, which provides a bag of food for the weekend to school-aged children living with food insecurity.

“We didn’t have a lot of money when my kids were small,” Sullivan says. “But they had food. [Before I learned about Power Packs], it never occurred to me that there were kids [in Jackson] who went home and didn’t eat.”

Recently, Sullivan has started thinking about the future, realizing the end [of his life] is a lot closer than the beginning of it. But that doesn’t necessarily change much. At least, not for now. He will continue to travel and hunt and spend time with friends. He will still offer great haircuts to the community and plans “to work when I’m 75, even if it’s a couple of days a week to be productive and part of something.”

As for Jackson Family Barber Shop, it has already withstood the test of time throughout the years. What’s a few hundred more?