Johnny Appleseed Monument Dedicated – Nov. 1900

Back cover illustration from Classics Illustrated Junior comic book, Johnny Appleseed (1955)

Although it seems like it's Christmas time already, it’s really still fall for several more weeks. And fall always makes me think of apples.

I’ve been enjoying many of the popular and newer varieties of apples during the last two months. These included Honeycrisp, Pixie and – my favorite – Evercrisp, of which I bought two bags at Miller Orchards.

And while enjoying all these apples, I naturally thought of Johnny Appleseed, who planted many an apple tree in Ohio. The monument honoring him in Mansfield, Ohio was dedicated one hundred and twenty years ago this month, on November 8, 1900.

The original monument in Mansfield

Here’s a picture postcard view.

In the decades since its dedication, the original monument began to show its age, thanks to the weather and vandalism. 

Thus the decision was made to replace the shaft and stone with the inscription with new ones, and move the monument to a new location in another Mansfield park. The ’new’ monument was dedicated in September 1953.

(For a well-written history of the monument with terrific photographs, click here.)

I paid a visit to the monument in Mansfield a few weeks ago. A sign at the entrance to South Park lets you know you’re close.

And here’s the monument.

Unfortunately, it looks like this stone will need to be replaced as well.

And what happened to the original stone? It’s in a museum in Mansfield.

Anyway, here is the Mansfield News-Journal’s coverage of the original monument ceremony from its November 8, 1900 edition. It includes many details of the life and death of Johnny Appleseed. (Sorry, but it was too much for me to transcribe, so you’ll have to click on it and zoom in for a readable view.) 

A few weeks later, one Ohio newspaper did an interesting follow-up with its own written portrait of Johnny Appleseed using a different source for its information. The story paints an image very different from the skinny character wearing a pot for a hat in the Walt Disney cartoon. In this Bucyrus Evening Telegraph article, it’s not a pot at all that he wears on his head – it’s something of his own design made of paste board. And instead of being tall and skinny, he’s said to be short and ‘chunky.’ Read all about the life of this unique man in the article (below) from the Bucyrus Evening Telegraph of November 29, 1900.

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JOHNNY APPLESEED
Father of the Apple Orchards
AROUND THIS LOCALITY
One of His Trees Still Lives and Thrives Near Bucyrus
PEOPLE HERE HAVE SEEN HIM
History of a Noted Character Lately Honored With a Monument at Mansfield
 
Though a monument has been erected to the memory of “Johnny Appleseed,” in Richland County, there still thrives on the Dan McMichael farm east of Bucyrus, a living monument in the form of one of the apple trees, which was grown from the seed sown by this eccentric individual, and still bears fruit. It is probably the last living apple tree planed by Johnny, but it is healthy and bears luscious fruit annually. The father of the apple orchards of Ohio, will be remembered by many people still living in Bucyrus, and other parts of Ohio, Indiana and Pennsylvania, and he was one of the most noted personages of pioneer history. Jonathan Chapman was his name, but he was seldom ever known by any other name than his soubriquet “Johnny Appleseed,” which he received from the fact that he made a business of sowing and distributing seeds each year, and in this way cultivating apple trees from the seed which he sowed in different localities. He was known in Ohio as early as 1811. He had little nurseries all through Ohio, Pennsylvania and Indiana. He was first seen in Ohio in 1806. He was going down the river with two canoes lashed together, well laden with apple seed which he had obtained at the cider presses in Western Pennsylvania.

Johnny Appleseed was a very remarkable personage, identified particularly with the early history of Richland County, and played an important part during the war of 1812. He was born in 1775, at or near Springfield, Mass. In the early years of the past century he removed with his father and family to Marietta, Ohio. Johnny’s father, Nathaniel sr., moved from Marietta to Duck Creek. Johnny returned to Pennsylvania, and here it was he began the nursery business and continued it on west. He often visited his father at Marietta and Duck Creek, and gathered seeds there. In connection with the apple tree business, he employed much of his time in sowing seeds of different medical herbs in the localities which were destitute of them. His main objective was to equalize the distribution of these plants so that every locality would be supplied with a variety, dog fennel, pennyroyal, catnip, horehound, mullin, rattle root, and in fact every other plant which he supposed to be medicinal. He had little nurseries all through Ohio, Pennsylvania and Indiana.

If a man wanted trees and was not able to pay for them Johnny took his note, and if the man ever became able and was willing to pay the debt the money was accepted thankfully, but if not it was well with Johnny. Some times he accepted articles of wearing apparel instead of money. One coat in particular presented a fine appearance, although a bit unfitted for the rough wear it received. It was sky blue, light, very firm and soft, made in the prevailing Quaker style with two rows of silvery looking buttons as large as silver dollars. This bit of finery was at one time the wedding garment of a very wealthy young Quaker.

Johnny was never known in the least to resemble a fashion plate. He didn’t believe in wearing clothes simply for the purpose of making a fine appearance. He thought if he was comfortably clad, in clothes that suited the weather that was all that was necessary. His head covering was frequently of his own manufacturing. It was of paste board, with the front brim widely extending to protect his face from the sun. It was not a very sightly affair of course, but no one ever thought of laughing at Johnny Appleseed. He was too genuinely liked. His trousers were old and scant and short with a variety of substitutes for suspenders. He never wore a coat except in winter. His feet were knobby and horny and frequently bare. The bosom of his shirt was always pulled out loosely, so as to make a sort of pocket or pouch, in which he carried his books. He frequently wore an old coffee sack for a coat, with holes cut in it for his arms.

Johnny’s family, the Chapmans and their relatives are scattered throughout Ohio and Indiana. Four of his half sisters were living when a memorial was raised to his memory in 1882. The father Nathaniel Chapman was twice married. The children of the first wife were John, Lucy and Petty. The girls married and remained in the east. The children of the second marriage were: Nathaniel, Perley, Persia, Abner (a mute), Mary, Ionathan, (also a mute), Davie and Dolly.

Johnny’s personal appearance was unusual. He was small of stature, heavy set, rather chunky, quick in conversation and restless in his movements. His eyes were dark and sparkling and his hair and beard permitted to attain the greatest length. His clothing was generally more than half worn out before he fell heir to it.

Religiously considered he was a Swedenborgian and one of our early spiritualists. He maintained the doctrine that a spiritual intercourse could be held with the dead, having himself frequent conversations with the inhabitants of the spirit land, two of which of the feminine gender, had revealed to him the consoling news that they were to be his wives in a future state providing he would keep himself free from a matrimonial alliance while on earth. He vowed celibacy and never could be persuaded to pay any attention to the fair sex. He died as he lived a blameless moral man.

The Indians all liked him and treated him kindly, always. From his habits they regarded him as a man above his fellows. He could endure pain like an Indian warrior; could thrust pins into his face without a tremor. So insensible was he to acute pain, that his treatment of a wound or sore was to sear it with a hot iron and then treat it as a burn. He was never known to hurt any animal, or to give any living thing pain, not even a snake. Once, when overtaken by night while traveling, he crawled into a hollow log and slept till morning. In the other end of the log was a bear and her cubs. Johnny said he knew that the bear would not hurt him, and that there was room enough for all.

On the subject of apples he was charmingly enthusiastic. One would be astonished at his beautiful description of excellent fruit. His descriptions were poetic. The language well chosen; it could have been no finer, had the whole of Webster’s Unabridged with all its royal vocabulary, been fresh upon his ready tongue. All the orchards in the while settlements came from the nurseries of Johnny’s planting. Sometimes he carried a load of seeds on an old horse, but more frequently he bore them on his back, going from place to place on the wild frontier, clearing a little patch, surrounding it with a rude enclosure, and planting sees therein. He would frequently carry as much as a bushel and a half of seeds on his back.

In 1838, he resolved to go further on west than Ohio. Civilization was making the wilderness to blossom like the rose, villages were springing up, stage coaches laden with passengers were common, orchards were everywhere, mail facilities were very good, frame and brick houses were taking the place of the humble cabin; and poor old Johnny felt that his field of usefulness would have to be taken up further on. In the intervening years he returned to Ohio many times. His last visit was the same year that he died. In the spring of that year, one day after traveling twenty miles, he entered the house of a friend in Allen county, Ind., and he was as usual cordially received. He declined to eat anything except some bread and milk, which he ate while sitting on the door steps, occasionally looking out toward the setting sun.

Before bed time he read from his little book “fresh news right from Heaven,” and at the usual time for retiring he lay down upon the floor in his usual custom, as he never slept on a bed or coach of any kind. In the morning the beautiful light supernal was upon his countenance; the death angel had touched him in the silence and darkness, and although the dear old man essayed to speak, he was so near dead that his tongue refused its office. The physician came and pronounced him dying, but remarked that he never saw a man so perfectly calm and placid.

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I’ve written about Johnny Appleseed before on this blog, including this post about his presence in Lorain County, and this one about my pilgrimage to the Johnny Appleseed Educational Center and Museum in Urbana, Ohio. (Unfortunately, many of the links on those ten-year-old posts no longer work.)

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Panel from Classics Illustrated Junior comic book, Johnny Appleseed (1955)