1881 – September 15, The Delano Eagle

BARBER – “R. Bohn fills the tonsorial bill for Delano, and his patrons all claim that his work is exceeding good. He has been in Delano since 1879, and came here from Sweden. Delano is well able to support a barber, and Mr. Bohn is never short of custom.”

1885 – January 1, The Delano Eagle

BARBER SHOPS – “Mr. R. Bohn and Mr. Chas. Parnell attend to the tonsorial wants of our citizens; the former’s place of business being on River Street, the latter’s on Franklin Avenue.”

(from the Delano Eagle, August 28, 1890)

“Mr. R. M. Bohn is negotiating for the purchase of I. H. Grafft’s store building on River Street. He intends to use the from room on the lower floor for a hair-dressing room, and the back part of the same story for bath rooms. The upstairs will be remodeled and converted into a photograph gallery by using the glass roof now on the present photograph gallery building which Mr. Bohn intends to convert into a residence. Mr. Bohn made an offer for the building some time ago, but it was not accepted until last week.”

Reynold M. Bohn was born March 4, 1850 in Norway, and immigrated to America in 1879. According to the 1880 census, he was boarding with the Nicholas Begon family on Railroad Avenue in Delano; he was 30 years old, single, and a barber. He married, but his wife committed suicide in 1883. R.M. married Frances A Cebulla on Aug. 23, 1888 in St. Paul. The 1895 census for Delano lists him as a barber and music teacher. In 1900, R.M., his wife Frances, and their four children, Frances Angela, Oscar F., Grover C. L, and Henrietta, were living in Delano; his occupation was listed as barber. R. M. died October 7, 1904, and is buried in the Delano Cemetery. His tombstone is engraved with a musical lyre.

Grover Bohn followed in his father’s footsteps. He began his lifetime career in high school of both barbering and the musical profession, which he followed until his retirement in 1958 after barbering for 49 years. Grover moved to Colorado in 1920, as a veteran to WWI, where he was the assistant band leader of the 358th Infantry Band of the 90th Division.

(Frances A. Bohn married Henry Stein, the brother of Armand Stein, -see below)

(Ads from the Delano Eagle, 1891

Charles Parnell is enumerated on the 1885 Minnesota State Census as living in Delano, with his wife Alice, and their children Laura, Mollie, and Chas.

“The barbers of Delano are Wm. Cowl, Wm. Seippel, Wm. Cuttler, and Wm. Banteon. Now ‘Will” you get shaved.” (from the Delano Eagle, April 5, 1906)

Beverly C. Yancey was a barber in Delano from at least 1895 through 1920. His shop was located on River Street, approximately in the location of the current vacant lot next to Rieder’s Meat Market. B.C. was enumerated either as a black or a mulatto on the census records. In 1895 and 1900 his nephew, Edward Brown was living with him and in 1900 Edward ‘s occupation also was listed as barber.

B.C. Yancy in his shop.

from The Great Northwest Magazine, December 1909:

“If there is any time more than another when a man feels that life is a dream of bliss, it is when he undergoes the soothing manipulation of a first class barber such as Mr. B. C. Yancey, the popular barber, has proven himself to be. Mr. Yancey, though a resident of Delano for more than seventeen years, did not, until last fall, actively unite himself with the business men of Delano. He is established in an up-to-date shop, in size 16x24. Diligent attention and earnest endeavor to steadily grow in his profession has placed him in the lie with many tonsorial artists of a life-long experience. One always finds him in good spirits, happy and jolly. He has become a favorite, as shown by the very large trade he has worked up in so short a period of time. It truly speaks well for the man and his skill in the manipulation of the razor.”

Bock Brothers

Three brothers, Charlie, Emil, and August Bock owned a barber shop together in Delano.

“We have moved from the old barber shop stand into C. M. Conzet’s building where the light will be sufficient to enable us to do first-class work, and we have our shop in first-class shape and ready for business. We have added a bath room to our shop and are ready to serve both ladies and gentlemen with baths. Call and see us in our new quarters. BOCK BROS. (from The Delano Eagle, October 10, 1907)

August Bock, Hamilton in chair; Charlie Bock, Fred Bock in chair; Armand Stein in chair, Carl “Rooster Eckman”, and Eddie Bock.

From the Delano Eagle, 1955:

Charley Bock Has Been Barber for 50 Years

Charley Bock started his barbering with Bev Yancy in June 1905. He had never gone to barber school or served an apprenticeship. His first day in Yancey’s shop he started out by giving shaves and haircuts. “I did a lot of that kind of work for my friends and relatives before I went to work in the shop and I guess Bev thought that was apprenticeship enough”, Charley said.

Charley worked for Yancy for 10 months and then took a job with Billy Cowles for six months. He worked in St. Paul and Billings, Montana before coming back to Delano and buying out the Cowles shop and going into business for himself.

During the time he was barbering in Delano, Charley taught the trade to six barbers: Carl Eckman; Armand Stein; Edward DeNoon; E. H. Bock, a nephew; Milo Bock, his son; and Carl Weldele.

Carl Eckman

The Delano Eagle reported in November of 1909 that Carl Eckman, who had been working in Washington for a few months, would be arriving back in Delano and soon be barbering in W. B. Seippel’s shop. Several years later, in 1925, the Eagle noted that he had moved his shop into the building recently vacated by Lembke’s Economy store on Bridge Street, and that “it was a great improvement over the old one.” (That building is currently the Book Nook.) Carl “Rooster” Eckman worked with Armand Stein for many years.

Charley Bock, cutting the hair of Frank Kaeppe. Frank was one of Charley’s first customers when he started barbering in Delano in 1905.

Armand Stein

Armand was the youngest son of John Louis Stein, an early saloonist in Delano and one of the builders of the brick block building on Bridge Street. “Armand started working in the barber shop in 1912. He was eight years old, and started off by shining shoes and lathering faces for shaves. During World War I, there was a shortage of barbers in Delano, because the majority of the barbers went to work in defense plants for the war effort. Armand’s brother-in-law, Charlie Bock, took him to the governor, and the governor granted the 15-year-old his license.” (from the Delano Eagle, September 11, 2006)

Armand moved out to the west coast in in 1922. After a few years of barbering in California, in San Francisco and Hollywood, Armand returned to Minnesota and opened his shop in Delano.

Armand married Adeline Horsch; their son Francis continued in his father’s business in the same location on River Street.

Fran Stein started barbering with his father Armand in 1967. He went on to barber full-time for fifty-eight years. In 2006 Fran moved his shop to a new location across from the Delano City Hall.

The history of Stein’s Barber Shop did not end when it moved. The backbar, from the 1800s; chairs, bought new in 1917; and the hand-cranked barber pole, only one or two of those types of barber poles left in the country, accompanied Fran on the move.

“Krumm’s Barber and Beauty Shop, located on the corner of Bridge and River Street, Delano, was owned and operated by Mr. and Mrs. Leslie Krumm, who took over the business from Mr. and Mrs. Ed Bock in 1941. For nine years, before coming to Delano, Mr. and Mrs. Krumm operated a barber and shop at 5460 Nicollet Ave., Minneapolis.” (from the 1946 The Eagle presents Delano, Minnesota)

The shop was in the same building where the Bock Brother barbered in 1907.

Mr. Leslie Krumm daughter Ihla Rae; Mrs. Krumm with customer, 1946

Dennis Kettenacker opened a barber shop in that same building in 1961. He was killed in a car-train crash in 1966, and Lowell McKinley bought the shop in 1967. He eventually sold it and went on to work in Excelsior, Maple Plain, and Victoria, before coming back to Delano. In 2022 Lowell McKinley joined Fran working out of Stein’s Barber Shop on Bridge Avenue. Lowell and Fran had known each other since 1966, but this was the first time they worked together. Fran sold his shop in 2025, and it the new owners opened Wright Cuts.