Debunking a neckbeard myth

One of the most famous neckbeards in history is Henry David Thoreau - indeed, the photo of Thoreau with the neckbeard was what inspired me to grow a neckbeard. For many years, Thoreau's wikipedia page contained the following quote:

Louisa May Alcott reportedly mentioned to Emerson that Thoreau's neckbeard "will most assuredly deflect amorous advances and preserve the man's virtue in perpetuity."

This is often cited online whenever the topic of neckbeards as a beard style comes up. However, in her excellent article How to (try to) lie with Wikipedia, Jessica West thoroughly debunks this quote. It is an invention, one of the many cases where a minor hoax slipped past the Wikipedia editors.

But what did people actually think of Thoreau's neckbeard? Unsurprisingly there is very little information about this available, but I did come across an interesting quote from the journal of Franklin B. Sanborn (from this page):

He looks, too, like Emerson - coarser, but with something of that serenity - and - sagacity which E - has. Thoreau looks eminently sagacious - like a sort of wise wild beast. He dresses plainly, wears a beard on his throat, and has a brown complexion

So it seems that Sanborn, at least, didn't view Thoreau's neckbeard as being especially tasteless: he mentions it just like you might mention a moustache or a hat. This isn't surprising given that in 19th century America the neckbeard was, if not a popular beard style, at least not almost unheard of as it is today.