A beard taller than Danny DeVito: how this NC man’s facial hair became world famous
Tucked in a sleepy cemetery next to a Presbyterian church at the foot of a mountain in Western North Carolina sits a rather inconspicuous grave marker belonging to one S.G. Brinkley — born Sept. 21, 1850, and died Dec. 13, 1929.
“Asleep in Jesus,” it reads. “Gone but not forgotten.”
Forgotten it might be, if it weren’t for a distinct image carved into the top of the headstone featuring a man mostly obscured by a curtain of white, his two small fists and a set of dark eyes the only visible markers of person-hood beneath a cloud of hair that formed an enormously long, well-groomed beard — the longest, in fact, in the world, he claimed at the time.
This is his story.
A ‘late bloomer’
Sam Brinkley was born 170 years ago near Burnsville in Yancey County.
Burnsville is a town of less than 2,000 people that sits “in the shadow of Mount Mitchell,” according to the town website. It’s roughly 20 miles from where Brinkley was buried, at age 79, at Garland-Parker Cemetery in Buladean, North Carolina.
His family moved to nearby Snow Creek in Mitchell County when Brinkley was a child, according to the Mitchell County Historical Society. He had an all but ordinary childhood, and was in fact “a late bloomer when it came to facial hair,” the N.C. Department of Natural and Cultural Resources says.
“According to newspaper accounts, until he was 21, he had no real beard to shave,” the N.C. DCR says on its website. “By 23, the growth had reached the astounding rate of a full beard in a week’s time.”
Brinkley’s beard began to double itself every week, according to the “Stories: A history of Appalachia” Facebook page.
By the time he turned 26, the Mitchell County Historical Society recounts Brinkley “had to shave several times a day to be presentable.” He finally decided to stop shaving altogether — “and he famously kept that promise.”
Rise to fame
Brinkley eventually married and moved to Magnetic City, or what is now known as Buladean, according to the historical society. His beard grew to a record 54 inches by the time he was 42, and his wife reportedly sewed him a silk pouch to store it in when he was out.
He worked in town as a teacher and farmer, NCpedia reported, citing historical census records.
But as his beard grew, so did Brinkley’s notoriety — and with it, his earnings.
Brinkley reportedly “wore his rolled-up beard beneath his shirt and charged a dime to reveal it,” according to NCpedia. He collected thousands of dollars this way from curious people over the years, the N.C. DCR reported.
By the time it hit his waist, Brinkley’s beard was attracting local attention. He reportedly began claiming “to have the longest beard in the world” when it grew to his knees and later his toes, according to NCpedia.
The Guinness Book of World Records reports the world’s longest beard technically belongs to Hans N. Langseth, of Norway, who was alive at the same time as Brinkley and died in 1927. It measured more than 17 feet long at the time of his death.
Historical record shows Brinkley’s beard, meanwhile, measured 5 feet 4 — or 64 inches — at its peak length. That’s six inches taller than actor Danny DeVito, whose IMDB page lists him as 4 feet 10, or 58 inches tall.
Brinkley was roughly 6 feet 2, according to the N.C. DCR.
Still, his beard was described as “soft and beautiful” in news articles, according to the N.C. DCR. One reporter even wrote it “was entirely natural, not the result of restorers or invigorators.”
The ‘world expert’ on beards
At age 40, Brinkley went to work for Barnum & Bailey Circus, where for 20 years he was billed as “The Man With The Longest Beard In The World.”
“He was exhibited throughout the country as the world’s authority in pogonotrophy, or the cultivation of beards,” according to NCpedia. “He made extra cash by selling picture postcards of himself.”
Brinkley spent summers with the circus and returned to North Carolina in the winters “to be with his family and teach,” according to the historical society.
“He was said to ‘have been as proud of his teaching and he was his beard,’ ” the society says.
Brinkley died in 1929 from tonsillitis and was buried in Buladean, according to the N.C. DCR, where “a striking photo featuring his legendary beard (is) recessed into his tombstone.”
It is still there today, according to Find A Grave.
This story was originally published September 21, 2020 at 6:32 PM with the headline "A beard taller than Danny DeVito: how this NC man’s facial hair became world famous."
