Grave of Joseph Palmer – Leominster, Massachusetts - Atlas Obscura

Grave of Joseph Palmer

Evergreen Cemetery

The right to a full beard is honored by the grave of a man who was attacked and jailed due to his facial hair. 

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Despite the conception that the past was a hairy wonderland of bearded outdoorsmen, bushy facial hair was long considered the mark of lunatics or worse, heretics. Today there is a Massachusetts gravestone that still remembers one man’s heroic fight against the forces of anti-hirsute vigilantes and a whole town’s persecution against his epic mane.   

A veteran of the War of 1812, Joseph Palmer began wearing a beard in the 1820s. Beards had gone out of style in the 1720s, and Palmer was considered by most all in his small town to be slovenly and ungodly. He was even criticized by his local preacher for communing with the devil, famously responding to the accusation, “…if I remember correctly, Jesus wore a beard not unlike mine.”

In May of 1830, Palmer was attacked by four men outside of a hotel in Fitchburg, Massachusetts. Armed with razors and scissors, the men attempted to forcibly shave Palmer’s face, but the bewhiskered man stabbed two of his attackers with a pocketknife, and was subsequently arrested for assault. He could have avoided jail by paying a fine and court fees, but Palmer refused, maintaining his innocence, and more importantly his right to a glorious beard. He was subsequently jailed for 15 months, including time in solitary confinement.

Upon leaving prison, Palmer joined the Fruitlands utopian community in nearby Harvard, Massachusetts after being influenced by his friendship with fellow Fruitlander, Louisa May Alcott. The character Moses White from Alcott’s Transcendental Wild Oats is later based on Palmer. Palmer died in 1865 and his tombstone displays a portrait of him with a long beard, and as a final act of rebellion, the inscription, “Persecuted for Wearing the Beard.”

Know Before You Go

The grave is located in Section 2, Plot 5, on Palmer Street (a dirt road) within the cemetery between Legate Street and Richardson Drive. Palmer Street runs parallel to Main Street and is separated from it by a stone wall but there are several small entrances, or you can use the main cemetery entrance. The grave is located near a tree and is in the northernmost row (therefore the closest row to Palmer Street and Main Street). Using street addresses, the site is located directly across the street from the driveway between 244 and 248 North Main Street.

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