George W.A. Frazier (1830-1874) was an early Montana pioneer who came to Virginia City with his family in 1865. His wife was Elmyra Heard Frazier (1835-1928) and the couple married in Hamilton County, Illinois in 1853. By 1866 the Fraziers had left Virginia City to come to Bozeman where George operated the "City Hotel" in partnership with John M. Bozeman. In 1881, seven years after George's death, Elmyra Frazier built a large home north of the town's main street to operate as a "family hotel" or boarding house. The Frazier House continued to accommodate lodgers until about 1921 and used the building as a family residence thereafter.
The Frazier House Records consist of three record volumes and one folder of laid-in receipts, invoices and other financial memoranda. The first volume is small record book that lists the names of lodgers along with the length of their residence and charges from 1885 to 1889. Some of these notations in this volume are quite extensive, recording the lodger's movements to and from Bozeman by specific dates. The second book, which is much briefer in presenting the same information, records transactions from 1887-1889. This volume appears to have entries among the first pages that suggest it was started by a separate business prior to the Frazier House use. The third volume is a hotel register that records the name of the guests and their home town from widely scattered dates from 1896 to 1921. The single folder of laid in receipts, invoices and financial memoranda date from 1894 to 1899.
This collection is open for research.
Original records from the Frazier House hotel of Bozeman, Montana were donated to the Museum of the Rockies, Montana State University, by Mrs. Ken Stimpson on October 6, 1964. They were transferred by the Museum to Special Collection on December 18, 1984.
This collection was processed 2012 January 30