The Tiffin tribune. (Tiffin, Ohio) 1868-1887, 1871-11-23


for it is the testimony Of all who knew
him that, notwithstanding his r.dicu-
lOus attire, he was always treated with
the greatest respect by the rudest
frOntiers-man, and what is a better
test, the boys of the settlements for
bore to jeer at him. With grown up
people and boys he was usually re-
ticent, but manifested great affection
for little girls, always having pieces
Of ribbon and gay calico to give to his
little favOrites. Many q grandmother
in Ohio and Indiana can remember
the presents she received when q child
from poor homeless Johnny Apple
seed. When he consented to eat with
any family be would never sit down
TO the table until he was assured that
there vas an ample sUpoly for the
children; and his sympathy for their
youthful troubles and his kindness to-
ward them made him friends among
all the Juveniles of the borders.
We must not leave the reader under
the impression that this mans life,
so full of hardship and perils, was a
gloomy or unhappy one. There is an
element of human pride in all martyr
dom, which, if it does not soften the
pains, stimulates the power Of endur-
anee. JOhnny's life was made serene
/ lyhappy by the conviction that hewas
living like the primitive Christians.
NOrwas he devoid of q keen hnmor, to
which he occasionally gave vent, as
the following will show. Toward the
latter part Of JOhnny's career in Ohio
an itinerant missionary found bis way
/ to the village ofMansfield, and preach
ed to an Open-air congregation. The
discourse was tedionsly lengthy, and
unnecessarily severe upon the sin Of
extravaganza, which was beginning
to manifest itself among the pioneers
by an occasional indulgence in the
carnal vanities of calico and "store
tea" There was q good deal of the
PhaIisaie leaven in the preacher, who
very frequently emphasized his dis
course by the inquiry, tWhere now is
there a man who, like the primitive
Christians, is travelling to heaven
/ barefOOted and clad in coarse raim-
! ent?n When this Interrogation had
been repeated beyond all reasonable
endurance, Johnny rose from the log
on which he was reclining, and adj
vancing to the speaker, he placed one
of his bare feet upon the stump which
served for a pulpit, and pointing to
/ his cOffee-sack garment, he quietly
said, Here's your primitive Chris
/ tian ~ The well-clOthed missionary
/ hesitated and stammeTed and dis
missed the congregation. His pet
Z antithesis was destroyed by JOhnny's
| personal appearance, which was far
more primitive than the preacher
cared to copy.
Some of the pioneers were disposed
to think that JOhnny's humOr was
the cause of an extensive practical
joke; but it is generally conceded now
that a widespread annoyance was
really the result of his belief that the
Extensively OdOred weed known in the
West as the dOg-fennel, but more
generally styled the May-weed,
possessed valuable anti.malarial vir-
tues. He procured some seeds of the
plant in Pennsylvania, and sOwed
them in the vicinity of every house in
the region of his travels. The cOnse-
quence was that successive fiOurishing
crops of the weed spread over the
whole country, and caused almost as
much trouble as the disease it was in
tended to ward off; and to this day the
dog-fennel, introduced by Johnny
Appleseed, is one Of the worst griev-
anees of the Ohio farmers.
In 1S38-thirty-seven years after his
/ appearance on Licking Crsek-JOhn-
nv noticed that civilization, wealth,
and population were pressing into the
wilderness of Ohio. Hitherto he had
easily kept Just in advance of the wave
of settlement, but now towns and
churches were making their appear
ance, and even, at long intervals, the
stage-driver's horn broke the silencC
of the grand old forests, and he fell
that his,wOrk was done in the region
in which he had labOred so long. He
visited every house, and took a
solemn farewell of ali the families.
The little girls who had been delighted
with his gifts of fragments of calico
and ribbons had become sober mat
rons and the boys who had wondered
at his ability TO bear the pain caused
by running needles into his flesh were
heads Of families. With parting
words of admonitiOn he left them, and
turned his steps steadily toward the
setting sun.
I During the succeeding nine years
he pursued his eccentric avOcatiOn on
the western border of Ohio and in In
diana. In the summer of IS47, when
his labOrs had literally borne fruitOveF
la hundred thousand square miles OF
territory, at the close of a warm day,
after travelling twenty miles, he en-
tered the house of settler in Allen
County, Indiana, and was, as usual,
warmly welcomed. He declined to
eat with the family, but accepted
some bread and milk. which he par
took of sitting on the doorstep and
gazing on the setting sun. Later in
the evening he delivered his "neWs
right fresh from heaven" by reading
the Beatitudes. Declining other
accommodation, he slept, as usual, on
the floor, and in the early morning he
was found with his features all aglOW
with a supernal light, and his body so
near death that his tongue refused its
office The physician, who was hastily
summoned, pronounced him dying,
but added that he had never Been a
man in so placid q state at the ap-
prOach of death. At seyeuty-twO
years of age, fOrty-six Of which had
been devoted to his self-impOsed mis-.
sion, he ripened into death as natur-
I al anu DCtAAtAAAAAJ - SA4C ogGAo VI liz
own planting had grown into fibre and
bud and blossom and the matured ruit.
Thus died one Of the memorable
men Of pioneer times, who never in
fiicted pain or knew an enemy-a man
Of strange habits, in whom there dwelt
a comprehensive love that reached
with one hand downward TO the low
est forms of life, and with the other
upward to the very throne OfGOd. a
labOring, self-denyiDg benefactOr OF
his race, homeless, solitary, and rag
ged, he trOd the thOrny earth with
bare and bleeding feet, intent only up
on making the wilderness fruitful.
Now ''nO man knoWeth Of his sepul-
chre ;" but his deeds will live III the
fragrance of the apple blossoms he
loved 50 well, and the story Of his
life, however crudely narrated, will
be a perpetual proof that true her
Oism, pure benevOlence, noble virtues
and deeds that deserve immortality
may be found under the meanest
apparel, and far from gilded halls and
towering spires.