Hans Langseth

Hans Nilson Langseth was a Norwegian-American who held the record for the world's longest beard.

Biography

Langseth was born in Eidsvoll, Norway, on July 14, 1846, and immigrated to the United States in 1867. He married Anna Berntsen in 1870 and worked as a farmer in Elkton Township, Minnesota. Later on in his life, he began growing a beard as part of a contest, and he won the contest. In his later life, he traveled around the United States as part of a freak show showing off his beard.
Langseth died of complications of old age at age 81 in Wyndmere, North Dakota, on November 10, 1927, and is buried in Elk Creek Church Cemetery in Kensett, Iowa. When he died, his beard measured. It was donated to the Department of Anthropology at the Smithsonian Institution in 1967.