Joseph Palmer

Joseph Michael Palmer (1789 – October 30, 1873) was a member of the Fruitlands commune and an associate of Louisa May Alcott and other Transcendentalists. Life A farmer from Notown, a village on the outskirts of Leominster, Massachusetts, Palmer was a veteran of the War of 1812. In 1830, Palmer was a successful Yankee farmer, but was by no means a typical one. Possibly influenced in childhood by a bearded itinerant evangelist named Lorenzo Dow, Palmer took to wearing a long beard in the 1820s. Few men in the United States wore beards after about 1820, and Palmer was considered eccentric and slovenly. Nicknamed "the old Jew", he was regularly harassed and questioned about his insistence on wearing a beard. A prominent Fitchburg minister once accosted him: "Palmer, why don't you shave and not go around looking like the devil?" Palmer replied: "Mr. Trask, are you not mistaken in your comparison of personages? I have never seen a picture of the ruler of the sulfurous regions with much of a beard, but if I remember correctly, Jesus wore a beard not unlike mine." One day early in May 1830, four men armed with scissors and razors attacked Palmer outside a Fitchburg hotel and attempted to shave him. Palmer successfully fended off his attackers. He was even able to use his jackknife to wound the legs of two of his assailants. Charged with "unprovoked assault", Palmer was arraigned a few days later before Judge David Brigham and fined. Palmer refused to pay the $10 fine, nearly $40 in court fees, and a $700 bond that resulted from his conviction for the crime of defending himself. Palmer was thrown into the Worcester County Jail and kept there for more than a year for refusing to pay the fine. Palmer kept a detailed journal of his fifteen months in the jail; the original is preserved in the archive at Fruitlands Museum. His prison diary records the words and actions of his often sadistic jailers, the experiences of his fellow prisoners, and his own steadfastness in resisting the efforts of the state and society to break him of his unconventional habits and opinions. Palmer's term in jail was extremely unpleasant at times. He was dangerously sick during his first few weeks behind bars. Later, he was beaten several times by the jailers, nearly starved for days at a time, placed in solitary confinement for several months, and physically threatened by other prisoners who tried to cut off his beard.