The Point: Johnny Appleseed

Johnny Appleseed,
real name, John Chapman
BORN: 26 September 1774.(16) 
DIED: 18 March 1845.(17)
BURIED: Archer Graveyard, Fort Wayne, Indiana. (18)  

• We of Western Pennsylvania have all our lives heard of Johnny Appleseed. Here and there we have bumped into bits of folklore and rare anecdotes of his crude but homely hospitality; of his gifts of apple seeds to westward trekking pioneers; of the orchards he cleared and planted; and of his voluntary missions of good will to the Indians. (19)

• Johnny Appleseed won renown by a few simple and helpful acts:

  1. He was a peacemaker between the Indians and white settlers.
  2. He was a missionary for the Church of the New Jerusalem, founded by Emanuel Swedenborg.
  3. Perhaps the most important of all, was his distribution of apple trees to the early settlers.

  He would secure permission to use a small patch of ground where he would plant appleseeds. Later, he would return, give some of the trees to the owner of the ground and then distribute the rest to other settlers. (20)

• From the Potomac, he could have worked his way westward to Fort Cumberland. From Fort Cumberland, he could have followed Nemacolin's Path, better known as Braddock's Road, to the Monongahela, and followed the Monongahela to Pittsburgh, a route that many New Englanders took because there were fewer Indians to be encountered along the southern route. (21)

• No evidence that John Chapman actually lived in Pittsburgh, however, has ever come to light. In fact, much fact points definitely to the contrary, although he could have visited the town, inasmuch as he was working in the Allegheny valley in the period from 1797 to 1804 and possibly later. (22)

• He must often have passed through Pittsburgh, but it wasn't like Johnny Appleseed to stay long in any town. (23)

• From diaries and letters of Johnny's contemporaries, which told of his safe arrival after arduous journeys, we are able to gain some idea of his personal appearance. He is described as small and wiry, quick in conversation and restless in motion. His cheeks were hollow and his body spare because he walked so much and ate so little.

  His face and neck were bronzed and lined by wind and sun. But it appears his eyes were the most memorable feature, for so many people remarked of his piercingly brilliant, dark eyes that could "read the thoughts in a man's soul; and if those thoughts were bad, could ferret them out with a word of faith and hope." (24)

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