The Man Who Grew a 12-Foot Beard to Protest Lincoln

In the heated presidential election of 1860, a Pike County, Missouri farmer named Valentine Tapley made a bold declaration: if Abraham Lincoln won, he would never shave again. When Lincoln's victory was announced on November 6, 1860, Tapley kept his word. For the next fifty years, his beard grew, and grew, and grew.

By the time Tapley died on April 3, 1910, at age 80, his beard measured an astonishing 12 feet 6 inches—long enough to wrap around his body multiple times. It remains one of the longest beards ever documented in American history.

A Democrat's Defiant Protest

Tapley was a staunch Democrat in a deeply divided nation. Lincoln's election represented everything he opposed politically. While most people express political disagreement through votes or speeches, Tapley chose a more... unconventional method. His ever-growing beard became a living monument to his disapproval.

Interestingly, Tapley already sported a six-foot beard before making his vow—he was clearly a man who took his facial hair seriously. But after Lincoln's election, he let nature take its full course for half a century.

Fame and Fortune (Declined)

As his beard reached extraordinary lengths, Tapley became something of a celebrity. A London museum offered him $5,000—equivalent to over $125,000 today—to display himself and his magnificent beard. Tapley refused. He wasn't interested in becoming a spectacle, even as his protest had turned him into exactly that.

Newspaper reporters and photographers sought him out. His image circulated in publications of the era, always showing the elderly farmer with his impossibly long beard coiled around him like a fuzzy rope.

Paranoid to the End

Tapley's beard became so famous that he developed an unusual fear: grave robbers might dig him up to steal it. This wasn't entirely paranoid—human oddities and curiosities were highly valued by museums and collectors in the early 1900s. To prevent posthumous theft, Tapley requested burial in a fortified coffin.

When he died in 1910, his wishes were honored. The beard that had grown for 50 years was buried with him, locked away from the world forever.

How Does It Stack Up?

Valentine Tapley's 12.5-foot beard was the world record for decades. But in the 1920s, a Norwegian-American named Hans Langseth surpassed it with a beard measuring 17 feet 6 inches. Langseth's family donated his beard to the Smithsonian Institution after his death, where it remains today.

Still, Tapley holds an impressive fifth place in the all-time rankings—not bad for a political protest that lasted half a century.

The Ultimate Commitment

What makes Tapley's story remarkable isn't just the length of his beard, but the sheer stubbornness behind it. Lincoln was assassinated in 1865, just five years into Tapley's vow. The Civil War ended. Reconstruction came and went. Presidents came and went. And still, Tapley refused to shave.

Whether you see it as admirable dedication or absurd pettiness probably depends on your own political leanings. But one thing is certain: Valentine Tapley kept his promise, one inch at a time, for 18,250 days.