Fayette County herald. [volume] (Washington [Washington Court House], Fayette County, O. [Ohio]) 1860-1???, 1871-11-16
Johnny Appleseed.

one horse load of apple seeds which
he planted in various places on and
about the borders of Licking Greek,
the first orchard thus originated by
him being on the farm of Isaac Stad-
den, in what is know known as Lick
ing county, in the State of Ohio. Dur
ing the five succeeding years, although
he was undoubtedly following the
same. strange occupation, we have no
authentic account Of his movements
until we reach a pleasant spring day
in 1906, when pioneer settler in JEFF
ferson county, Ohio, noticed a pecu-
liar craft, with remarkable occupant
and a curious cargo, slowly dropping
down with the current of the Ohio
River. 1t was johnny Appleseed,"
by which name Jonathan Chapman
was afterward known in every log
cabin from the Ohio River to the
Northern Lakes, and westward to
the prairies of what is now the State
Of Indiana With two canoes lashed
together he was transporting load
of apple seeds to the W Western frontier,
for the purpose of creating orchards
on the farthest verge of white settle
ments. With his canoes he passed
down the Ohio to Marietta, where he
entered the Muskingum, ascending the
stream of that river until he reached
the mouth of the Walhonding, or
White Woman Creek, and still onward,
up the Mohican, into the Black Ford,
to the head of navigation, in the re-
gion now known as Ashland and Rich
land counties, on the line of the Pitts
burg and Fort Wayne Railroad, in
Ohio. A long and toilsome voyage it
was, as glance at the map will show.
and must have occupied a great deal
of time, as the lonely traveller stopped
at every inviting spot to plant the seeds
and make his infant nurseries. These
are tue first we'll authenticated facts in
the history of Jonathan Chapman,
whose birth, there is good reason for
believing, occurred in Boston, Massa-
chusetts, in 1875. According to this,
which was his own statement in one
of his less reticent moods, he was, at
the time of his appearance on Licking
Creek, twenty-six years of age, and
whether impelled in his eccentricities
by some absolute misery of the heart
which could only find relief in inces-
SAINT motion, or governed by mon
omania, his whole after-life was de-
voted to the work of planting apple
seeds in remote places. The seeds he
gathered from the cider presses of
Western Pennsylvania; but his canoe
voyage in 1906 appears to have been
the only occasion upon which he adopt
ed that method of transporting them,
as all his subsequent journeys were
made on foot. Having planted his
stock of seeds, he would return to
Pennsylvania for a fresh supply, and
as sacks made of any less substantial
fabric would not endure the hard usage
of the long trip through forests dense
with underbrush and briers, he pro-
vided himself with leathern bags. Sc.
curely packed, the seeds were convey
ed, sometimes on the back of horse,
and not unfrequently on his own
shoulders, either over part of the old
Indian, trail that led from Fort Du-
quesne to Detroit, by way ofFort San
dusky, or over what is styled, in the
appendix to "Hutchin's History of
Boquet's Expedition in 1884," the
second route through the wilderness
of Ohio,' which would require him to
traverse a distance ofone hundred and
sixty six miles in a west north west
direction from Fort Duquesne in
order to reach the Black Fork of the
Mohican.
JOHNNY APPLEsEED's HUMoR.
We must not leave the reader under
the impression that this mans life, so
full of hardship and perils, was a
gloomy and unhappy one. There is
an element of human pride IN all
martyrdom, which, it does not soften
the pains, stimulates the power of en-
durance. Johnny's life was made
serenely happy by the conviction that
he was livingslike the primitive Chris
| tians. Nor was he devoid of a keen
humor, to which he occasionally gave
vent, as the following will show. To-
ward the latter part of Johnny's career
in Ohio, an itinerant missionary found
his way TO the village of Mansfield,
and pFeaehad- to apen=air conQrega-
ton. The discourse was tediOusly
lengthy, and unnecessarily severe
upon the sin Of extravaganza, which
was beginning to manifest itsell
among the pioneers by an occasional
indulgence in the carnal vanities OF
calico and store tea. There was q
good deal of the Pharisaic leaven in
the preacher, who very frequently en-
phasized his discourse by the inquiry
Where now is the man who, like the
primitive Christians, is travelling to
heaven barefooted and clad in coarse
raiment ?" When the interrogatiye
had been repeated beyond all reasona
BILE endurance, Johnny rose from the
log on which he was reclining, and ad
vancing t. the speaker, he placed one
of his bare feet NJ on the stump which
served for a pl pit, and pointing tC
his coffee sack garment, he quietly
said, Here's your primitive Chris
tian !'' The we'll clothed missionary
hesitated and stammered and dismissed
the congregations His pet antithesi
was destroyed by Johnny's persona
appearance, which was far more prim
, tive than the preacher cared to copy
: Some of the pioneers were disposed
to think that Johnny's humor was tn
cause Of an extensive practical joke
n but it is generally conceded now tha
G q wide spread annoyance was reall.
2 the result of his belief that the often
siveIy-adorcd weed know in the Yves
/. as the dog -fenncl, but more gennrall
o styled the May weed, possessed anti