TITE STORY OF JOHN CHAPMAN. . 2Go 



"JOHNNY APPLE SEED." 



The Stoky of .John Chapman, the Apostle of Api'le Growing, Who 

 Planted Nurseries in the West in Readiness fob Coming 



Settlers. 



It is ovei- a hundred years now since John Chapman and his little 

 nurseries of seedling apple trees were extensively Ifnown in northern 

 Ohio and northern Indiana. His name was John, not Jonathan, as some 

 have it. He was a very eccentric man, whose benevolence outranked his 

 eccentricity. He was born in the vicinity of Springfield, Mass., in 1775, 

 and died near Fort Wayne, Ind., March 31, 1845. His first coming to the 

 West was about 1801, when immigration to Ohio— yet a territory — was 

 fairly under way. 



In the early portion of the nineteenth century Mr. Chapman was a 

 familiar visitor in northwestern Pennsylvania, but more particularly in 

 northern Ohio and northeastern Indiana. His all-absorbing occupation — 

 a labor of love^ — was planting little nurseries of apple trees, miles apart in 

 advance of civilization. He made small clearings in favorable localities, 

 protected the grounds from outside injury with fallen trees, brush, etc., 

 planted the seeds and passed on to the next desirable place. 



The seeds he obtained mainly at the cider mills in western Pennsyl- 

 vania. He sometimes carried them on his shoulders in the oldfashioned 

 saddle bags, but when more plentiful, in larger quantities on the back of a 

 sorry looking little pony. One person mentions meeting him on the Ohio 

 river below Pittsburg, with two canoes lashed together and loaded mainly 

 with apple seeds. In 1806 he is said to have planted twelve or fifteen 

 bushels in his little nurseries. 



During the growing season he would visit them and give the little trees 

 whatever attention they would need, traveling nearly always on foot and 

 often barefooted. When the trees grew to the proper size he would be on 

 hand to sell them to the settlers, getting money sometimes, sometimes a 

 note and sometimes old clothes. The man who wanted trees was never 

 turned away. 



He never grafted. This seemed an unknown mystery to him. And not 

 a few of the early nurserymen — who never itinerated as he did — were of 

 the same class. Most of their trees produced small, austere fruit, but with 

 the plentiful supply of maple sugar at that time they were excellent in 

 pies and sauce. 



It has usually been considered that his tree raising was altogether in 

 Ohio and Indiana, but the late Rev. J. H. Creighton, of the Ohio Con- 

 ference (who was well informed in pomological affairs), stated in a com- 

 munication to the Ohio State Journal some years ago that he had reason 

 to believe that the Northern Spy, a noted apple of New York, was one of 

 Chapman's seedlings. The family came from Massachusetts, and East 

 Bloomfield, N. Y., where the Northern Spy originated, is near the track of 

 emigration in that day. 



