The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1894-05-31
THE BEST OF TRAMPS.
OLD JOHNNY APPl ESEED, WHO
PLANTED MANY ORCHARDS.

and Went About Barcfootcd, Sowing
Apple Seeds M Tracts-ue Was Con,
siderate Toward Everything Alive.
One OF the quaintest, queerest and most
original characters that ever trod the
trackless wastes Of the western wilderness
was Jonathan Chapman, known as ole
Johnny Appleseed. Pioneer, philosopher
philanthropist and pomologist was he, tax
ing no thought of himself and living fol
Others only. He would not, could he pre-
vent it, suffer the slightest harm to be
done to the meanest of living creatures
In the great western solitudes he led the
life Of the primitive Christian, taking a
thought only Of the hour and letting O
wise Providence look out for the future
He thought hunting morally wrong, and
he would let a mosquito sit on him and
suck his blood until the insect was satiated
to bursting.
This odd old man was the pioneer or
chard planter of the west. For over TWEEN
ty years he wandered over the states Of
Indiana, Ohio, Illinois and Missouri, plant
ing apple seeds and selling and giving
away the seedlings. Many of the great
apple orchards Of the west owe their origin
to Johnny Appleseed. Old Johnny was
born in Boston in lT75. In 1901 he ap.
peared 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 originated by old Johnny was
on the farm of Isaac %Stodden, in what is
now Licking county, o.
81 have often wondered why there was
such a widespread ignorance of old Johnny
Appleseed in the west" observed a friend
of the writer recently. Even among nor.
ticulturists 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 won
der is that his name is not a byword and
his history a part of the common school
curriculum of the day.
HIS TIN 0 HAT.
The early western pioneers who knew
him but slightly considered old Johnny a
%vagabond. From cursory observation it
would appear that their views were pretty
well founded. a more uncouth individual
it would have been difficult to find. His
garments were a bundle of rags. His shoes,
when he wore any, could scarcely be held
on his feet by bits of Irvine, so d~ilapidated
and worn were they, His pinched and
grizzled features were covered by a growth
of very shaggy beard. His hair was quite
long and very much faded by constant ex-
posture to wind and weather.
But old Johnny's browning glory was an
old tin mush pot that had a long handle.
This battered old culinary utensil he wore
for a hat. When he was tramping through
the western forests the old man always
cooked his meals in the old mush pot. The
cravings of hunger satisfied, he would give
the pot a 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 it's exterior
was a sight to behold, so blackened and
battered was it.
With all his uncouthness of personality,
however, old Johnny Appleseed had an in
tellect as keen as the most polished schol-
ars of the day. His ideas were far in ad.
vance of his time. Those who have re.
ceived personal impressions of the old man
say that he was a philosopher whose puri.
ty of thought was rs clear as q perennial
spring and whose life was as simple us
that of a child.
WHY HE WAS so NAMED.
The name Johnny Appleseed was given
him by the early settlers with whom he
came in contact because he nearly always
carried a bag full of apple seeds with him.
These seeds by infinite toll he gathered
from the cider presses among the Dutch
farmers in Pennsylvania.
When u sufficient quantity of the seeds
had been gathered old Johnny would load
the fruit of his labor in a canoe and start
on a voyage down the Ohio river into the
great wilderness of the west. In Indiana
and Illinois, wherever there was the faint
est suspicion of II settlement, he went and
planted his apple seeds. Sometimes heI
would select an open place in the forest,
his Judgment telling him that some day
the white mar would be there. The dis
covery of fruit bearing apple trees in the
woods in these states has led many to be-
lieve that the apples are indigenous to the
soil.
When Indiana and Illinois became well
settled, old Johnny extended his wander.
ings 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 de-
scribed. When his seedlings became large
enough he gave them to the settlers or sold
them for food and clothes.
SOME OF HIS PECULIARITIEs.
One of the most peculiar characteristics
of old Johnny Appleseed was his religion.
lie led a simple, moral and harmless life.
He was the follower of the new church, a
SwedenbOrgian, and he never lost an OPP
portunity to expound his doctrines. He
carried with him always a little bundle of
tracts. These he distributed among the
early settlers on the border of civilization.
When he would make his return trips he
would take those tracts up and leave new
ones in their places. His advent in Ohio
IL Nv carly udSS CTCuJGN u SelSHUlOU. Inc
simple minded people of the towns and vii.
lagos knew nothing but the old faith, and
their belief was strong in superstition.
Some thought he was crazy, and there
fore treated him with compassion; others
thought he was possessed of a devil and
would not allow him to enter their houses.
At this time, however, a member of the
Baptist church of Richland county, o., a
school teacher and the best read man in
the county, invited the strange pilgrim to
his home. The Ohioan SAID afterward that
he found, his guest to be one of the best
posted and most brilliant minded persons
that he had ever had the pleasure OF meet.
ing.
Those who knew the old man say that
he was in constant fear of hurting some in
sect or animal. One night he built his
camp fire in the woods and prepared to
cook his evening meal. The mosquitoes
were very thick about the fire and some of
them flew into it and were scorched. This
so worried old Johnny that he took his old
@Ua- DA Il I II