Editor’s Note: This story was to go with last week’s article about the Montana Children’s Theater story. We did not have the room last week.
Last week, the Montana Children’s Theater came to Big Sandy to work with our kids to put on a musical show depicting the life of Johnny Appleseed. The story included a few elements of truth, but the legend of Johnny Appleseed has grown larger than life. The story of the real man is fascinating.
John Chapman was born in Massachusetts in 1776. He left home and the state by the 1790s. He initially settled in Pennsylvania, where he planted his first orchard. During the Whiskey Rebellion in 1794, he was inspired by the German cider mills near his home. The inspiration promoted him to collect seeds from the millstones and sell them to settlers in the region. The trade in apple seeds quickly earned him the nickname “Johnny Appleseed.” Incidentally, these elements of his story appeared in the play, though in a somewhat more whimsical manner. The practice of collecting seeds from cider mills for distribution apparently followed him throughout his career.
It is worth noting that because he collected seeds from cider mills, the seeds themselves were cider apples. Cider apples aren’t typically useful for much apart from making hard apple cider, which was particularly important during the pioneer era because clean water wasn’t easy to come by. The cider provided a safe alternative to water.
Chapman set out by canoe to sell seeds to settlers in the west. He did not make much money in the process, typically trading seeds for things he needed to survive. He also gained a reputation for planting saplings along the way. Stories of his eccentric clothing include him wearing some sort of tin can hat. The popular stories of a cook pot hat are unlikely to be all that accurate, because cook pots at the time were iron or copper and far too heavy for wearing as a hat. He was also known for wearing coffee sacks as a coat and never wearing shoes, including in the dead of winter. According to his obituary, he wore a pair of pants that was actually four pairs patched together in order to make one. Often he traded seeds for old clothes, though he had a reputation for giving away seeds to the needy as often as not. Apparently, Chapman was rarely turned away from a cabin where he sought shelter. This was rarely an issue as he preferred to sleep on the ground with his feet to the fire for warmth.
At some point, Chapman was exposed to the work of Emanuel Swedenborg, on which the Church of New Jerusalem was founded. His newfound faith prompted him to become a missionary, and itinerate preaching became a central component of his travels.
Chapman died of pneumonia in Fort Wayne, Indiana in 1845. The first published stories of Johnny Appleseed appeared in 1971, having grown to a bit of a tall tale by that point. The expanded story painted John as the embodiment of pioneer values, including charity, a sense of adventure, and faith.
