Johnny Appleseed

THE STORY OF JOHNNY APPLESEED

John Chapman better known as Johnny Appleseed, was born September 26th 1774 and was an American pioneer nurseryman who introduced apple trees to large parts of Pennsylvania, Ontario, Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois, as well as the northern counties of present-day West Virginia. He became an American legend while still alive, due to his kind, generous nature, his simple outdoor nomadic life, and his planting of many apple trees across America.

When Johnny was 18 he and his younger brother, Nathaniel, headed west with a caravan of immigrants travelling across America. During his 20’s he travelled alone and continued moving west to Pennsylvania. From there he travelled into the Ohio Valley country and later, Indiana. He was always ahead of the other pioneers and often planted apple tree nurseries in areas that he rightly believed would become settlements. He always carried a leather bag filled with apple seeds he collected for free from cider mills. The legends state that he would be distributing and planting apple trees wherever he went, along the roadways and the streams. However research suggests that he planted numerous nurseries that he would fence off with fallen trees, logs, bushes and vines to stop the animals from getting to the trees. He would then leave the nursery to his neighbour and return every year or two to help tend to the nursery and sell the trees. He planted his first nursery on the bank of Brokenstraw Creek, south of Warren, Pennsylvania. Next, he moved to Venango County, along the shore of French Creek, but many of the nurseries he planted were in the Mohican River area of north-central Ohio. Many of the apples that he planted were cider apples and were not the sweet apples we know and eat, instead these smaller apples were quite unpleasant and were used to brew and ferment alcoholic cider. This was a staple of

“but [he] found it occupied by a bear and cubs, so he removed his fire to the other end and slept on the snow in the open air, rather than disturb the bear.”

the American diet, especially for pioneers who didn’t always have access to sanitary drinking water. He soon was known as the “apple seed man” and later he became known only as “Johnny Appleseed.”

He made friends with many Native American tribes and was known to have learned many Native American languages well enough to converse. He lived on food provided by nature and he never killed animals. Though appearing poor, he was not a poor man. He accumulated more cash than he needed by selling his apple trees and tracts of land. He never used banks and relied instead on an elaborate system of burying his money. He preferred to barter and trade food or clothing rather than collect money for his trees. It was more important a settler plant a tree than pay him for it.

Folklore has also described him as “funny looking” because of the way he dressed. It is said he traded apple trees for settler’s cast-off clothing. He was known to give the better clothing to people he felt needed it more than he. He rarely wore shoes, even during the cold of winter. It is said he could walk over the ice and snow barefooted and that the skin was so thick on his feet that even a rattlesnake couldn’t bite through it. He rarely sought shelter in a house, since he preferred to sleep on bare ground in the open forest with his feet to a small fire. Stories collected by Henry Howe in the 1830’s helped illustrate Johnny’s love of all animals and even insects, writing:

“One cool autumnal night, while lying by his camp-fire in the woods, he observed that the mosquitoes flew in the blaze and were burned. Johnny, who wore on his head a tin utensil which answered both as a cap and a mush pot, filled it with water and quenched the fire, and afterwards remarked, “God forbid that I should build a fire for my comfort, that should be the means of destroying any of His creatures.” Another time, he allegedly made a camp-fire in a snowstorm at the end of a hollow log in which he intended to pass the night but found it occupied by a bear and cubs, so he removed his fire to the other end and slept on the snow in the open air, rather than disturb the bear.”

There are also stories that Johnny had a pet wolf that would follow him everywhere after he helped heal the wolf’s injured leg.

In 1842, Johnny made his last trip back to Ohio after spending 50 years walking throughout the countryside. While there, he moved into the home of Nathaniel, the half brother with whom he began his remarkable journey. On March 18, 1845, he died of pneumonia at the age of seventy-one. He was visiting his friend, William Worth, in Indiana. Legend says it was the only time he was sick in his whole life. There are various theories as to his final resting place.

Johnny Appleseed left an estate of over 1,200 acres (490 ha) of valuable nurseries to his sister. He also owned four plots in Allen County, Indiana, including a nursery in Milan Township with 15,000 trees, and two plots in Mount Vernon, Ohio

These days, the apple is no longer just associated with the common fruit but has become synonymous with cities and one of the largest companies on the planet.

MOD W

AIS FOR ERN ORLD