By Eleanor Parker (UPSTREAM Newsletter, March 16, 1987)

Postcard view of Second Avenue—also known historically as Sawdust Street and today’s Maple Street—in Lincoln, New Hampshire. The first house on the right, identifiable by the barber pole, was the home and barber shop of Oran and Mary Hudson. Before establishing this location, Oran Hudson operated his barber shop out of the Lincoln Hotel on Church Street, making this image a rare glimpse into the early commercial and residential life of downtown Lincoln in the early 20th century.

“One man told me he knew of only two barbers who could do that cut—a fellow in Boston and me!” But Oran Wilfred Hudson wasn’t always a barber. He started life as one of eleven children in Lubec, Maine, but spent much of his youth in Nova Scotia, where he married Mary C. Deveau in 1915. After the shipyard where he worked closed down, he went to Lynn, Massachusetts, but that shipyard also closed. On his way back to Maine, he met a man who was working in Lincoln and invited him up there.

So Oran came to our valley in 1920 and has been here most of the time since. At first, he worked in the steam plant at the mill for six years, until an accident burned his eye. Seeing an ad for barber school in the paper, he decided, “It was better to work where it’s clean!” In 1927, he entered the Vaughn Barber School in Boston, where he mastered the eight-week course in twenty-seven days.

Upper Pemigewasset Historical Society Barber Collection, featuring a barber chair and barbering tools belonging to Oran Hudson, Pete Fillion, Charlie Harrington, and John Lynch.

At the time, there were eight barbers in Woodstock and Lincoln. As the newcomer, “They didn’t like me much,” says Oran. Especially, they didn’t like him when he quickly became the most popular barber. In 1927, a haircut for man or woman was 35¢, a shave 15¢, and children’s haircuts were 25¢. In North Woodstock, Oran had lots of summer people staying at the big hotels. One time, a judge from New York came in and said he wanted Oran to cut his hair exactly as he would cut his own; his reason… his name was also Hudson.

After three years in North Woodstock, Oran was called to barber in Bangor, Maine, only to be called back to Lincoln when Jim LaFontaine left the barber shop in the Lincoln Hotel. He cut John Henry’s hair and Sherm Adams’ from the time Sherm first came to Lincoln. “I always liked Sherm,” Oran says. “He was a very smart man.”

The Lincoln Hotel, Lincoln, New Hampshire

One day, Oran received a letter from Martin Brown telling him that he must keep the shop open from 7:00 am until the last man left. Oran took the letter over to Mr. Brown’s house and said, “Mr. Brown, I’m not under any Communist rule; I pay good rent for that shop, and I’ll make my own rules.” He moved his shop to the front room of a house he bought on Maple Street, retiring in 1959. He and Mrs. Hudson have lived in the red mobile home on Pollard Road since 1970.

Back in the ’20s and ’30s, Oran cut for as many women as men. The women had the Windblown Bob, the Feather Cut, and the Sweetheart Bob (with a heart on the forehead). No husband ever complained about his wife’s haircut! The most popular cut for men was the Flattop or Crew Cut. In addition to the leaders at the mill, Oran cut hair for all the priests and ministers. He liked the Rev. George Marsh best of the ministers, and remembers that Fr. Griffin wouldn’t come to the shop, but insisted that Oran go to the rectory for his haircuts.

What was Lincoln like in those days? There were only three houses in Pig’s Ear, and the rest of the town was all company houses and boarding houses. Bernie Andrews ran the big garage. Although Oran could do four cuts an hour, sometimes there would be as many as 25 men in the shop at once, sitting on the floor and visiting. What did people talk about at the shop? They talked about the mill. “They made more paper in my shop than at the mill!” Oran would never allow comic books for his young patrons, only good magazines.

Oran Hudson’s Barber Tools

Eventually, he realized he must retire. Since he had cut Charlie Harrington’s hair and knew Charlie was a good man, he gave him all his razors, though “nobody gets a shave now.” At the last of Oran’s working, a shave was 40¢, a haircut $1.25, and a child’s haircut 50¢. A barber inspector from Concord told him he had one of the best records in the State.

If you had it to do over, would you be a barber? “Oh, yes. I like people; I had a lot of fun. I knew so many people from all over the country. They would wait until they got here to have me cut their hair.” Let us hope this 93-year-old has many more years in his favorite town with the people he likes.

Gravestone of Oran W. Hudson and Mary C. Hudson at Riverside Cemetery in Lincoln, New Hampshire

NOTES

1. Parker, Eleanor. “English Feather, Please, No Clippers!” The UPSTREAM (Upper Pemigewasset Historical Society), vol. 1, no. 3 (March 16, 1987): 2.
2. Postcard of Second Street, Lincoln, New Hampshire. Upper Pemigewasset Historical Society.
3. Upper Pemigewasset Historical Society. Barber Collection. Photographs. Lincoln, New Hampshire.
4. Brown, Martin A. A House for You in Lincoln, N.H. Photograph of the Lincoln Hotel. Lincoln, New Hampshire, n.d.
5. Find a Grave. Gravestone of Oran W. Hudson and Mary C. Hudson, Riverside Cemetery, Lincoln, New Hampshire. Photograph. Accessed December 15, 2025.