Hans Langseth
Hans Nilson Langseth was a Norwegian-American who held the record for the world's longest beard.
Langseth was born in Eidsvoll in 1846 and immigrated to the United States in 1867. He married Anna Berntsen in 1870 and worked as a farmer in Elkton Township, Clay County, Minnesota. At age 19, he begin growing a beard as part of a contest, and it is unclear if 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 aged 81 in Wyndmere, North Dakota 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.
