Peter Cooper

Peter Cooper (1791-1883) was an American industrialist and inventor who designed and built the first American steam locomotive. He was also a political activist, spending much of his life campaigning for slavery abolition and for better treatment of Native Americans. In 1876, at the age of 85, he ran for President as the candidate of the left-wing Greenback Party. Although this was a minor party and he had no chance of winning, his campaign remains notable since, to this day, he is the oldest person ever nominated by a political party for President of the U.S.

As you can see in the pictures below, Cooper wore the neckbeard for much of his life; and in his old age, it had become an astonishing example of the style. Few men have achieved a neckbeard of such proportions.