Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-05-03
A UNIQUE CHARACTER
In the Pioneer History Of Ohio Was
Old Johnny Appleseed.
ORCHARDS ARE HIS MONUMENTS.
How He Trudged tho Primitive Forests
With his Treasures.
STORIES OF HIS ECCENTRICITIES
rwRIr TEN FOR THE p1sPATcH,1

WRIT TEN FOR THE pIsPATcH.1
Johnny Appleseed. Perhaps demented.
Perhaps as sane as the average person, but
wearied of civilization. A man who harmed
nothing and no one, but who added his mite,
in a humble way, to the pleasures of the
generations that came after him. A unique
figure in the days of the stalwart pioneer.
A welcome guest of the red man, friend OF
the white, q benefactor Of the Common
wealth.
On the banks of the Muskingum, along
the White Wo man or Walhondine, up the
several forks of the Mohicsn, bearing golden
fruit at the present day, are scores of living
monuments to his untiring and unselfsh
labor. Within rod Of the great Pennsyl-
vania Company's railway tracks, in the
heart Of the manufacturing industries OF
the thriving city of Mansfield, O., still
fourishes pioneer apple orchard planted
by the eccentric character. Here John
Chapman, in the first decade of the century,
had one of his numerous nurseries, and to it
many of the apple orchards for miles round
about owe their origin.
A Native of New England.
It has been settled that John Chapman
was born at Springfield, Mass, in 1775.
Legend says that he made his appearance
on the Potomac, in the vicinity of the
mountains, in 1890. It is fact that his
father, who was twice married, located at
Marietta, O., in 1901. The family consisted
of John (Johnny Appleseed, Lucy. Patty,
Nathaniel, Perley, Abner Ga mute), Mary,
Jonathan "a mute) Davis and Sally. Sub
sequentIy the ia miiy moved to Duck Creek,
where the father died and is now buried.
John Chapman made his appe arance in
Central Ohio and earned the name that has
gone down in early history, along between
1861, One authority says the first
orchard originated by him was on the farm
of Isaac Stadden, in Licking county, on the
banks of the stream by that name, near the
city of Newark, in 1901. A Jefferson
county pioneer says the first time he saw the
quaint character was in 1886. Johnny was
descending the Ohio river in two canoes
lashed together laden with appleseeds from
Pennsylvania cider presses. His destina-
tion Was the head waters of the Mohican in
Ashland and Richland counties, which he
kingum, and thence the Walhonding.
streams.
The canoe was his mode of transportation
while not remote from his source Of supplies,
but on the extreme frontier an old horse was
pressed into service, or he was content to
trudge over hill and through dale afoot with
a leathern bag strapped to his back. These
streams, at this day, were navigable for
canoes as far as Mansfield, and the Kill
buck bore fatboats loaded with salt as far as
Wooster. in Wayne county. AS he pro-
ceeded on his way he would select an eligi-
BILE site, clear small patch of ground. sur
round it with rude fence, and plant his
seeds. When his stock was exhausted he
returned to the source of his supply, and
again started into the wilderness.
Thus were originated nurseries all over
the eastern half Of Ohio, near streams tribu-
tary to the Muskingum. IT settler wanted
trees he took them and paid for them in
money, clothing or board, or gave his note
to Johnny the next time he saw him. In
one instance only did he come into the pos
session Of real estate-in Ashland county
but the deeds we've never recorded, and liti-
CATION In the Ashland county courts was
had over this land few years ago.
John Chapman was q man OF strict morals
and firm Christian. He believed in the
doctrines of Emanuel Swedenborg. and
claimed to converse with spirits. In the
bosom of his shirt he always carried Sweden
borgian works and the New Testament, and
these he faithfully read.
One Who Remembers Him.
Miss Rosella Rice, recently deceased, a
native of Ashland county, thus described
Johnny to the writer: "He was such good,
kind, generous man that he thought it was
wrong to spend money on clothing to be
worn for appearance. He thought that If
he was comfortably clad, and in attire that
suited the weather, it was sufficient. His
head-cover1ng WAS often q pasteboard hat Of
his own making, with one broad side, which
he wore next the sun to protect his face.
1t was very unsightly object, to be sure,
and vet never one of us children ventured to
laugh at it. We held the old man in tender
regard. Mother told us how for u long time
he had made tin vessel do double duty as
a head-covering and a coffee pot.
"His pantaloons were. always old, scant
and short. with some sort OF substitute for
'gallows' or suspenders. He never wore a
coat except in midwiDter; and his feet were
knobby and thorny and frequently bare.
Sometimes he wore old shoes, but if he had
none, and the rough paths hurt his feet, he
substituted sandals of his own handiw ork-
rude soles with thong fastenings. ] have
often seen him attired in coffee sack as a
coat, with holes cut in it for the arms. The
bosom Of his shirt was always pulled out
loosely, making kind of pouch, in which
he carried his books. ALI the orchards in
the white settlements came from the nurse
ries OF Johnny's planting. Even now, after
these many years. and though this region OF
country is densely populated, 1 can count
from my window no less than five orchards,
or remains of orchards, that were once trees
taken from his nurseries.
How He Carried His Seeds.
"He carried his seeds in IeatEern sacks
because the dense underbrush, brambles and
thorny thickets would have made it unsafe
for the coffee sack. I remember very dis
tinctly of falling over one of ] ohnny's we'll
filled sacks early one morning, Immediately
on rising. 1t was still dark at the head of
the stairs and the sack was not there when
went to bed. Johnny had arrived during
the night and put the sack upstairs while he
lay on the kitchen floor with his poor old
horny feet to the wood fire. 1 never heard
of him sleeping in bed. should judge
there was a bushel and half Of seeds in
the sack, and it was 30 full that instead of
being tied ald leaving a hand-hold it was
snugly sewed up, and one end was as smooth
as the other. 1t must have been as difficult
to carry as box of the same size aud shape.
Father said that Johnny always carried
fore stick, or any big stick for the fire place,
on his hip. Perhaps that was the way he
carried that ungainly leathern sack.
"Father told me that in 1906 Johnny
planted 16 bushels of apple seeds on one
farm ON the Walfonding river. Think of
the natience in gathering that manv annie