John Chapman aka Johnny Appleseed

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Copied and submitted by Janet Waite 1999

Source:  Bicentennial Salute
West Virginia's 200 Years
Bicentennial Supplement West Virginia Hillbilly
Year and Page 1811  Richwood, West Virginia

Calls Himself Johnny Appleseed
Plants Orchards on Frontier

As farmers and orchardists munch on "some of the finest eating apples I
ever sunk a tooth in" along the Ohio River from Parkersburg to Wheeling
they give silent prayer to the strangest individual who ever walked the
soil of Western Virginia.

That man, now an American legend after passing this way but six years ago,
is identified as John Chapman, although most people know him by his
nickname of Johnny Appleseed.  Born around 1775, Chapman developed a
largenursery near Pittsburgh Landing where he sold or gave saplings and
apple seeds to families migrating westward.  Many such scions found their
way to the Ohio River farms and now this year are bearing fruit.

And what has happened to Johnny Appleseed in the meantime?  The answer is
that he left Pittsburgh Landing, let his hair grow long, dressed int he
attire of the frontiersman, and walked his way into Legend, reading his
Bible on the way.  He became a fried of the Indians, who let him come and
go as he pleased.  He became a friend of all humankind, and of animals.
Once he reproved an Indian walking companion for killing the rattlesnake
which bit Johnny.  "He didn't mean to harm me," he said.  Another time he
extinguished his camp fire because it was burning to death the gnats.

Everywhere he goes he leaves apple seeds or plantings.  He prefers to sleep
out of doors, and while he will accept man's companionship, that is all.
He never eats with his hosts, preferring to cook his own.  He uses neither
tea nor coffee, declaring that if you intend to go to heaven, you need to
practice up for the kind of life up there.  And there you get only milk and
honey to eat, so that is about all that Johnny Appleseed consures here on
earth.  Except, well, maybe apples.