In the late “Roaring Twenties” and throughout the “Dirty Thirties” one of the busiest young businessmen on Fairview’s main street was Chick’s Barber Shop. If you walked into Chick’s shop you would see the dazzling pattern of the inlaid linoleum floor, the snow white fixtures and Chick standing by the sparkling clean mirror with his little black barber’s tie on.

Chick Long was born Oct. 31, 1894, in Carlyle, Iowa, a son of Mr. and Mrs. Robert C. Long. Long had 2 brothers, Jack and Walt, and a sister, Hattie. Long came to Fairview in 1915. He started out working for the Jennison Coal mine but was offered a job in a State Street shop that employed several barbers. Long was hired to do shaving. You didn’t have to have a barber license in those days. The only requirement was to be able to do the job, and Long had lots of practice shaving his dad and grandpa. Before long, Long began cutting hair along with his shaves.

Long’s barber career was interrupted in 1917, when he and his brothers enlisted. Long was shipped to France, and he saw plenty of action while serving with the 120th light field artillery during World War 1. Chick earned many stripes in several major campaigns including the Argonne. Argonne was a long strip of rocky mountain and wild woodland in northeastern France and was the site of military action during WW1. Long had many close calls during the war, and sustained injury with a hunk of shrapnel imbedded beneath the skin of his right hand. But his most serious injury was when he jumped off a caisson on which he had been riding one night while his outfit was on the move. The ground beneath failed to provide a suitable landing, and the bones of Long’s knee were badly dislocated. Long spent two weeks on a cot in a tent before he could be taken to a vacuation hospital, and from there he was taken on a 400-mile trip to reach the hospital. The best thing about the hospital was being given a bath to get all the lice off and to sleep between clean white sheets, commented Long.

Shortly before the war had ended, Long became ill with the flu and again found himself in a hospital. He was there when the Armistice was announced.

Long came back to Fairview and worked for the establishment, serving as a barber in the Vitt brothers’ pool hall in the basement of the Albert Hotel. While working there, a man from the Minneapolis Barber Supply asked him why he didn’t open a shop of his own. Long told him he didn’t have the funds to purchase equipment. The barber supply man grinned and assured him there’d be no problem. The supply man let Long buy whatever he needed, and Long made monthly payments.

In 1928, The Barber Shop and Marcelling Parlor, under the management of Mr. and Mrs. Charlse Long, opened up. They opened up their business in the building formerly occupied by the Finniman Jewelry store. They would add bathing facilities later for the convenience of their patrons.

In 1950, Long suffered a severe heart attack and was disabled for a period of time. He closed his shop and reopened it again after his recovery. The only other time Long discontinued his barber shop was during World War II. He was recruited by the F.B.I. and assigned to duty at the atomic plant at Hanford, Washington. Soon after, Long retired from the barbershop.

In 1930, Long married Marian Woodworth in Miles City. Mrs. Long operated a beauty shop in the Finneman Building along with Chick’s Barber Shop.

Before WWI, Long and his brothers formed the Long Brothers Orchestra. They were kept busy playing for barn dances, home dances and all the public dance halls in the area. They made good money at $5 for each musician. While they were away at war, their sister Hattie (Mrs. Truman Willis) had practiced on their musical instruments and had become an accomplished musician. She joined the orchestra with her brothers. All four Long children were gifted musicians while their parents had no musical ability. All four could play all the stringed instruments, including the piano. Long could hear a song and practiced it until he could play it well. All of the Longs had no musical education, but all could play by ear.

EDITOR’S NOTE: Information compiled from Courage Enough and the Fairview Times.