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


The Father of Orchards In the state OF
OhiO-The Work of an Eccentric
Man Who Was Widely Known and
Thought Well of by All.
or all Ohio's quaint characters, one
of the most remarkable and at the
same time most lovable was johnny
Appleseed," by which name wonderful
old John Chapman was known through
out the state years ago. He was the
father of the orchards that have made
the state famous for its apples. and If
all he believed about the virtues of APP
pies was true he was the father Of
much of the healthfulness that blesses
the sons and daughters of the state.
He believed that apples made people
healthy and he gave to the early set
tiers of Ohio all the chance they had in
the early days to get apples.
How well he is loved by the pioneers
of the state is shown by the handsome
monument to his memory that was UNI
yelled at Mansfield last Thursday.
Not many of those who knew Johnny
Appleseed" personally are alive now
but his work has lived after him to an
extent that makes him the most re-
markable penniless philanthropist the
state ever knew. He was as poor as
Jobs turkey as he would have said
himself in his fondness for the Scrip
lures and their application to the eve
| yrday things of life, but he gave to
the pioneers of the state an endowment
of apple trees.
Cleveland had share in his penni-
less benevoence for here and there
about the city, notably in Newburg,.
are orchards which are pointed out by
old residents as having been planted
with trees that We're once raised by
Johnny Appleseed" and given to some
pioneer of the early years of the CEN
tury.
Mansfield seems to be the only city of
the state that has recognized Johnny
Appleseed" and what he did for the
state in it's youth, for nowhere else, not
even at his olmost-forgotten grave out
in Indiana is there a monument to him.
The monument to his memory that was
dedicated in Mansfield last 8hursday
stands in the fine Sherman Heineman
Park in that city which was the joint
gift of the late Senator Sherman and
wealthy fellow townsman. The monu-
ment was erected by Martin b. Bush
nell of Mansfield, whose father was one
of the pioneers of that part of the
state and a personal friend of the
quaint Johnny Appleseed." The lower
part Of the monument, which is of buff
stone, bears the inscription, In memo
ry of John Chapman, best known as
Johnny Appleseed pioneer apple nur-
seryman Of Richland county from 1910
to 1890" The quaint man for whom the
monument was erected was a hero as
we'll as a crank, as he would have been
called had hellived to-day. He roamed
through the woods without anything in
the shape of weapon, despite the fact
that the forests We're thronged with In
dams and wild animals that Were al
most equally hostile and bloodthirsty.
Once he saved a settlement from the
Indians by a. thirty-mile trip through
the woods at night, a trip which was as
fine in it's way as Paul ReVere's ride.
He was a faddst, a crank, perhaps
but at the same time he was an intelli-
gent Christian mn in ragged clothes,
and no one who knew him, not even the
children who were tempted to laugh at
him. nor the Indians, whose companion
he was on many a winter night in the
forests of the state, could help but re-
spect him. He could easily have turned
his philanthropy into money
into enough money to have made rich
man among the the pioneers, to whom
the possession Of couple Of thousand
dollars meant Independent wealth, but
he did not care for money, he said
Johnny Appleseed" might very prop
erly be called an apple missionary. He |
that apples We're good for peo-
pie, and he undertook to supply apples
to the pioneers. His plan was as sim |
pie as his life, and his life was almost |
as simple as that of a squirrel or an In
dian. He had no home, no money, and |
not much in the way of clothes. He |
would either go on foot or in a birch /
bark canoe where there were streams |
that made it possible to go by water, |
across the line into the older settle
ments of Pennsylvania, where there
were orchards The pioneers who came
to Ohio were too poor and it was too
difficult to get themselves and their
families into the new state for them to
bring any young apple trees, and few of
them had the patience to plant where
they could be transplanted to form or
chards. So there was scarcely an or
ehard worthy the name in the whole
state. The quaint apple missionary
saw this and realized how many years
t would be before the struggling pio-
leers had time to plant orchards, even
they We're able to buy the
rees to plant, and he devoted almost
he whole Of his life to giving orchards
o the then scanty population of Ohio
From the older portions of the older
state of Pennsylvania he would bring
back to Ohio bags filled with apple
seeds. He got them at the cider mills d
# the Keystone state. Apple seeds
we're of no value to those who had ap-
lie trees, and in Pennsylvania no one {
bought of saving apple seeds. So
Johnny Appleseed" had no trouble in I
citing all the seeds he could carry !
Jack through the wilderness to Ohio !
When he got to part of the state
where there were no apple trees he
would plant the seeds he had brought. {
lie had studied the matter until he was I
BILE to pick out the most favorable s
1aces to plant so that they would be | !