The suburban citizen., 1901-03-02
ODD JOHNNY APPLESEED
A MONUMENT TO THE MEMORY OF
A PENNlLESS PHlLkNTHRoPlST.

or UhiO - The WORK OF Nh HN'oh-
trio Man who Was Widely known
and Well Thought Of
'Johnny Appleseed' has a monu-
ment. Future generations shall know
OF the noble mission of John Chapman,
the Apostle of Apples, Mansfield, Ohio,
has rescued his memory from oblivion
and embalmed it in statue. The story
of his gentle, beneficent life is the
record of one of the qualntest, sweet
est characters produced in the pioneer
West. Next to his religion Johnny
Appleseed' held apples to be the choic-
est blessing vouchsafed to man. He
believed in the salvation of health by
apples. He preached the gospel of
apples, and he practiced It, He made
the young lands Of Ohio and Indiana
bloom with the fragrant white bios
SONS Of countless apple trees. He
added untold wealth and happiness
to generations born and unborn. Sage
and simple, crank and genius. seer and
yagrant, Johnny Appleseed" was a
penniless phllanthropist, q humble
benefactor Of millions.
The cidermills Of Pennsylvania were
his Mecca, and appleseeds his quest,
From every pilgrimage to the East he
brought back precious sacks of seeds.
With his own hands he cleared forest
spaces for his nurseries, and when the
trees were two or three years old he
distributed them broadly, sometimes
in exchange for a bit of clothing, but
more often as a gift Gentle and low
able, friend of white and redskin, the
apple missionary was as one crying in
the wilderness. He went whittier he
would, welcomed by all, and he dotted
the woods and prairies OF his kingdom
with apple orchards.
1t was a picturesque but a practical
crusade that this poor backwoodsman
preached, and there are hearts attuned
to it's divine sweetness. 1t remained
for Martin B. Bushnell, Of Mansfield,
to erect permanent memorial to the
Apostle Of Apples, and it was recently
unveiled in the Sherman-Heineman
Park, which Is the joint gift Of the late
John Sherman and a fellow townsman,
Mr. Bushnell's father was a warm
friend Of Johnny Appleseed." The
base of the monument, which is of
buff stone, bears the inscription, "In
Memory of John Chapman, best known
as Johnny Appleseed, pioneer apple
nurseryman Of Richland County, from
1910 to $780,
Graded in Massachusetts, in 1775,
"JOhnny Appleseed" came West with
a brother in the dawn of the century,
Little was known Of his early life, but
there were traditions among the pion-
GERS of Ohio of a romance in which a
woman scorned the young mans love
He began his apple mission in Penn.
sylvania in 1902 or 1903, but soon
transferred his field to Ohio. He made
frequent visits to one Keystone State
fc' apple seeds, and ON his return
sought favorable spots for his pioneer
He sought fertile soil and |
sheltered places, and often made clear
ings to give his tender shoots protec- |
ton from wind and blizzard. AS one |
section Of the State became supplied |
with trees he moved to another. The
early settlers were too busy in wrest-
ing a livelihood from nature and in
fighting Indians to engage in the slow
process or raising apple trees from
seed, and Chapman, full of faith in the
virtue of the fruit took upon himself
the duty of supplying the need. Usual
ly a man of FEW words, he became elo-
luent when speaking of apples, and his
fne flow OF language gave the impress
sion that he had been well educated.
Living upon the bounty of field and
forest, eating fruits and nuts like the
beasts and birds, never harmng an
lnimal for fur or food, "Jonnny Apple.
jeed" led a life of supreme simplicity.
Sometimes he replenished his scanty
wardrobe by barterlng young trees for
I'D clothes or castoff boots. More Of
en- he gave freely of his trees, and
hus started many a pioneer orchard
lie carried on this work in Ohio for
wenty years OF more, and then he fol-
owed the star Of empire westward to
continue his mission in the newer field
# Indiana, where he died in 1S45.
"Appleseed Johnny lived as simple
life as the animals he loved. He
lad no home, seldom any money, and
'arely any clothing. He lived in the
woods as often as not, and a hollow
rec was his favorite bed. His long
nd arduous trips to Pennsylvania
ver0 made in part on foot and in part ,
2 birch bark canoes. He saw that life d,
vas too great struggle for the pion- {
ers to spare the time for this work,
nd he devoted his life to their service. :
hey had little to give, and he asked :
Or little. he was always clothed in
lgs, and in summer they were hardly !
lore than shreds. He often went bare q
)Oted, sometimes tramping weary !
lilies through the snow without cover
lgs for his feet. In the summer he a
'as content with sandalG of wood OF z
ark, fastened to his feet with thongs +
deer skin, He literally took no n
lought for the morrow. If near a set Il
ement he could always count on bit
food For his tramps in the woods