Freeland tribune. (Freeland, Pa.) 1888-1921, 1891-08-20
&" JOHNNY APPLESEED."
ONE OF THE QUEEREsT CHAR
ACTERS THAT EVER LIVED.
Wandering for More Than Twenty
Years Through Western Wilds,
Planting Apple Seeds-Consider-
ate Toward Everything Alive.

" "ohuCiAh6 ioi mOrc 4hah AW0hey
Years Through Western Wilds,
Planting Apple Seeds-Consider-
ate Toward Everything Alive.
One Of the quaintest, queerest, and
most original characters that ever trod
the trackless wastes of the Western will
derness was Jonathan Chapman, known
as old Johnny Appleseed. Pioneer, phil
osopher, philanthropist and pomologist
is he, taking no thought of himself and
living for others only. He would not,
d could he prevent it, suffer the slightest
sharm to be done to the meanest of living
creatures. In the great Western soli-
tudes he led the life of the primitive
Christian, taking a thought only of the
hour and letting wise Providence look
out for the future. He thought hunting
morally wrong, and he would let mos
quito sit on him and suck his blood un-
til the insect was satiated to bursting.
This odd old man was the pioneer or
chard planter of the West. For over
twenty years he wandered over the States
of Indiana, Ohio, Illinois, and Missouri,
planting apple seeds, and selling and
giving away the seedlings. Many of the
their origin to Johnny Appleseed. Old
Johnny was born in Boston in 1775. In
1901 he appeared in the Territory of
Ohio with a load of apple seeds. which
he planted in various places in and about
Licking Creek. The first orchard orig
mated by old Johnny was on the farm of
Isaac Stodden, in what is now Licking
Acounry, Ohio.
n 81 have often wondered why there was
such widespread ignorance of old
Johnny Appleseed in the West" OBJ
served friend of the writer recently.
"Even among horticulturists his name is
scarcely known. There certainly was no
character any more fully identified with
the West than he in his day"
Thus it is with all who have ever heard
anything of the quaint old man. The
wonder is that his name is not byword,
and his history part of the common
school curriculum of the day. One of the
early histories of Ohio says that Johnny
Appleseed was originally from Massa-
chusetts. Some years ago Harper's
Magazine published something of the
man, but nothing like detailed OF COM
plete history has ever appeared.
The early Western pioneers who knew
him but slightly considered old Johnny
vagabond. From cursory observation it
would appear that their views were pretty
u well founded. A more uncouth individ-
ual it would have been difficult to find
His garments were q bundle of rags.
His shoes, when he wore any, could
scarcely be held on his feet by bits of
twine, so dilapidated and worn were they
His pinched and grizzled features were
covered by growth of very shaggy
beard. His hair was quite long and very
much faded by constant exposure to wind
and weather. But old Johnny's crown
ing glory was an old tin mush pot that
had long handle. This battered old
culinary utensil he wore for hat. When
forests the old man always cooked his
meals in the old mush pot. The cravings
of hunger satisfied, he would give the
pot q careful washing, put it on his head
and tramp on. This was his practice for
over two decades. The old pot was
bright enough on its inside, but its ex-
terror was sight to behold SO blackened
and battered was it.
N With all his uncouthness of personal
ity, however, old Johnny Appleseed had
an intellect as keen as the most polished
scholars of the day. His ideas were far
in advance of his time. Those who have
received personal impressions of the old
man say that he was philosopher whose
purity of thought was as clear as a
perennial spring and whose life was as
simple as that of child.
The name, Johnny Appleseed, was
given him by the early settlers with
whom he came in contact because he
nearly always carried bag full of apple
seeds with him. These seeds, by infinite
toll he gathered from the cider presses
among the Dutch farmers in Pennsyl-
vania. Frequently the daughters and
wives of the farmers would assist him in
his task, but most of the time he pursued
his work alone. When sufficient guam
tity of tho seed had been gathered, old
Johnny would load the fruit of his labor
in a canoe and start on voyage down
the Ohio River into the great wilderness
of the West. In Indiana and Illinois
wherever there was the faintest suspicion
of a settlement, he went and planted his
apple seeds. Sometimes he would select
an open place in the forest, his Judgment
telling him that some day the white man
would be there. The discovery of fruit
= bearing apple trees in the woods in these
States has led many to believe that the
apples are indigenous to the soil. When
Indiana and Illinois became well
settled, old Johnny extended his wander
iAgs west of the Mississippi River and
planted his apple seeds on Missouri soil
In the wigwam of the Indian and the
cabin of the pioneer he was known and
always welcome. He must have made
twenty such annual trips as the one
above described. When his seedlings
became large enough he gave them to
the settlers or sold them for food and
clothes. He generally made n sorry
bargain, the garments he got being OF
the very poorest variety. During the
summer he almost always travelled bare
footed. One enthusiastic historian says
that the old man even travelled barefooted
when the snow was on the ground. Ono
person calls him the "John in the Viii
derness" of the New World
One of the most peculiar characters
tics of old Johnny Appleseed was his
religion. He led simple, moral ant
harmless life. He was the follower oi
the new church, a Swedenborgian, ant
he never lost an opportunity to expound
his doctrines. He carried with him al
ways a little bundle of tracts. These he
~ distributed among the early settlers OF
the border of civilization. When he
would make his return trips he would
take these tracts up and leave new ones