Early Barber Shop of Valley County

Barbershops were a place to gather, talk shop and sometimes play cards. This is a photo from the Frazer barbershop. The photo is of Matt Eliason, on the right, at work in his barbershop in 1917. Eliason was born in 1884 in Wisconsin, the first of 10 children born in America to immigrant parents from Norway. They homesteaded in Opheim. Eliason left the family in the early 1900s and barbered in Iowa and Canada. He came back to Montana and bought a barbershop and pool hall in Oswego. He later purchased the pool hall in Frazer. During the "dam days" he barbered in Fort Peck during the week and went home on the weekend. He passed away in 1967 in Frazer.