Page 37 - May1990

MAY I99O NAT'NONAN, tsUT']TON tsUN,N,ETNN 83

very young, and his mother's farewell words-"that I might glorify God"-remained
uppermost in his mind.
John had taken up a new faith. Very few Americans belonged to this religion. They
called themselves "Swedenborgians." John Chapman, burning with a mystic's zeal,
became a dedicated man. With the only skill he possessed, that of an orchardist, he
would faithfully serve the pioneers. He would go with them and before them into the
wilderness to plant trees, which would someday drop fruit into welcoming hands.
In 1797, when John was only 23 years old, he entered what is now Pennsylvania. In
his knapsack, he had his Bible and the fixin's he thought he would need. At night he
slept with the knapsack under his head, for in it were seeds which he had gathered and
washed at a cider mill. In winter, he slept in abandoned cabins. When he met people,
they would not say much, but look at him shy and sideways...as if they thought he
misht be touched in the head.

Four buttons showing apples.
Top: Carved pearl. Center:
(l) Modern lVilliam Tell
with child holding apple-
white metal, (2) Fanny
Davenport picking apple-
brass. Bottom: Ceramic.

He planted his first seed in a place called Warren, in open bottom land. Moving
about 60 miles down the Allegheny River to Franklin, an Indian town, where a few
pioneers lived, he planted trees and moved again westward. After a time, he
accomplished what he had started out to do. As he made his rounds, planting and
taking his saplings to town to sell to the pioneers or trade for clothing or food, he
became known as Appleseed John. Traveling south and southwestward, John became
a familiar figure. Coming into a small town with his two-year old saplings, he always
looked up his fellowmen who were Swedenborgians. He would preach and listen to
their findings. Children loved to see him for he always had such wonderful stories to
tell. The older folks soon learned he carried news of the other people from their homes
of long ago. Johnny would never become a complete hermit. Sooner or later, his
devotion to apples and to pioneers would draw him out among men. John Young
became his agent, sending him the new Church tracts, both for his own reading and for
distribution among the settlers. So, Johnny took up his way again, so filled with the
glory of renewed inspiration. Like James Glen, he would carry healing herbs to the
frontier-snakeroot, dog fennel, mint and garlic, and flower seed, delighting in the
miracle of their blooming by the cabin doorsteps.