Details

Collection Summary
Collection: 1976 - Dakota Photo Documentary Project
Folder: 0000.000
Item: 00611
Title: Martin Skrede, barber cutting man's hair in Starkweather (N.D.)
Date: 1976
Creator: Anderson, Jerry
Inscription/Marks: [Handwritten on back of photograph]
Summary: Close profile view of barber, Martin Skrede, 81, cutting man's hair. The man is covered by a white sheet and the barber works the hair on the back of the man's head with his scissors. (Skrede, Martin Mosessen--1895-1986) Martin Skrede was 8 or 9 when he started cutting the hair of his nine brothers on their Norway farm. Soft-spoken and diminutive, he emigrated from Norway in 1909, starting in Grand Forks in 1913 where he worked on the Great Northern Railroad until he could understand the language. Then Martin Skrede moved to Starkweather in 1916, population 200, and opened his one chair shop. For many years he railroaded by day and barbered by night, initially charging 25 cents for a shave – something barbers do little of anymore –and 50 cents for a haircut. During the Dirty ‘30s, he dropped the prices to 25 cents for hair and shaved for 10 cents. During World War II, about 60 soldiers were stationed in Starkweather to help area farmers who were short on manpower. For the duration of the war, Skrede gave free haircuts and shaves to the soldiers. His wife, May, 73, washed their weekly laundry for nothing. “I felt those men were fighting for their country and we should do something for them, instead of like some places where they got soaked for everything,” Skrede says. In 1977, he finally raised his prices to $1 and he stopped giving shaves. In 1980, he raised the price to $2 to help pay for his wife May’s care at a nursing home in Cando, North Dakota. Reluctantly in 1981 he raised it again to $2. One last time a month later he raised the price to $3. He was still charging $3 per haircut in 1985 enjoying the challenge of cutting each person’s hair. Martin Skrede passed away in April 1986 and his wife May in 1987.
Red ID: PH_I_155544 Image ID: 177508 Image Notes: 1976-00611

Collection: 1976 Digitized Images from Collection
Title: Dakota Photo Documentary Project
Date: 1976

Summary: Photographic prints and negatives of towns in North Dakota taken during the Dakota Photo Documentary Project. Also includes residents of the towns and various landmarks in North Dakota. [Location: Begins at 1490509.10]

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