The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1900-11-24

could wear or use. More often he gave
the young trees away, presenting tC
each of the pioneers enough trees t(
make fairly large orchard. In this
way he started almost innumerable or
Chards
He carried on the work for years, anc
there are still many thousands of ap-
pie trees in the state that grew either
from little trees raised by Johnny
Appleseed," or else from older trees
that he raised. His work supplied the
state with apples many years sooner
than the struggling pioneers would
have done it, without his quaint, but
beautiful beneyolence,
1t is said of him that he lived life
of almost conceivable simplicity and
gentleness. Innumerable anecdotes of
him are told One chilly night in tie
woods, when he was huddled over a
little fire he had built to keep himself
warm, he noticed that insects were be-
ing attracted to the fire by the light
and were falling into it. Never to
harm a living creature was one of his
principles. and when he noticed that his
fire was causing the death of some of
Gods creatures, as he called everything
that had life, he put out his fire and
spent the remainder of the night in
cold and darkness. His life was full of
such acts as this He crawled into a
/ hollow log one night to sleep and when
he found that there was a chipmunk
and her family in the other end and
that they We're frightened by his pres
ence, he went away, and slept in the
snow because he could not find another
hollow log.
Living in the woods as he did when
he was making his trips to and from
Pennsylvania, he came to be an adapt
in woodcraft, and this may have had
something to do with the high esteem
in which he was held by the Indians,
who never molested him. AS he came
from the places where he got his APP
pie seeds, he used to stop and pay Wis
its to the orchards he had created,
seeming to have almost the regard for
the trees that he would have for a pet
animal.
He began his apple tree missionary
work as early as 1902 or 1903 He was
less than thirty years old then, and
strong in limb, but far from good look
ing. He was born in Massachusetts in
1915, and came west with his brother in
the first years of the century. First he
began his apple missionary work in
western Pennsylvania, but that coun-
try was rather too we'll settled, and
there We're already too many apple or
chards for his work to take Just the
beneficent character he aimed to give
r fIyn l,, 1yo, I,
quaint work of philanthropy in Ohio,
and then this state, having meanwhile
being transformed from a wilderness to
farming country, he went on out west
and carried on his apple missionary
enterprise in the still newer country.
His death was as quantity pathetic
as his life He loved the trees he plant
ed as he might have loved children of
his own. The last of his life was pas
sed in the neighborhood of Fort Wayne
where, although man of seventy-two,
he still planted apple seeds and raised
trees for the benefit of the settlers of
that part of the country He heard
that some cattle had demolished the
fence of brushwood he had placed
about a little cluster of trees he had
planted, and although the place was
twenty miles from where he lived, he
started on foot to go to it and rebuild
the fence.
All the score of miles to where his
trees We're he tramped. He worked for
hours repairing the fence about the
trees, so that it should not be broken
down again by cattle and then started
for his home. 1t was a cold, snowy day
and on the way back the old man be-
came so weak that he was compelled to
stop at a settlers house and ask to be
allowed to rest there. 1t CHANGED that
he went to the house of a man who had
lived in Ohio, and who had known of
Johnny Appleseed" and his life work
of giving the state apple trees. He was
very warmly welcomed but would not
accept anything but some bread and
milk and permission to sleep on the
floor. The next morning he was deleri-
Gus with pneumonia, the result of the
fatigue and exposure Of his trip to save
the trees he had planted, and in short
time he was dead. He was buried near
where he died, and the rude headboard
that was placed over his grave long
ago rotted away, so that the exact To-
cation can only be guessed at.
But if it were left to him to choose
there is little doubt that johnny
would have said that he |
wanted no better monument than the |
thousands of apple trees all over the |
state of Ohio that have sprung from |
The seeds he planted. Cleveland Leader. |