The Apple-Seed Man

By Paula Appling • Illustrated by Dennis McDermott

John Chapman planted thousands of
apple trees as America moved west.

Imagine sleeping on a bed of earth with the sky as your roof. Imagine birds and wolves and snakes as your only companions for weeks. Imagine eating nuts and berries and roots that you’ve freshly harvested and prepared.

John Chapman chose this life for most of his seventy-one years. He learned the language of the birds, and he befriended wild animals. For his dinner, he might collect nuts, cranberries, mushrooms, and cattail roots. Sometimes John would come upon a pioneer family and have a meal with them. But if meat were served, he would excuse himself politely—a meat stew meant killing an animal.

John Chapman was born in 1774 in the village of Leominster, Massachusetts, just before the Revolutionary War for independence from Britain began. It was autumn, the time of year when apples are harvested and cider is made.

When he was about six, John’s family moved southwest to Longmeadow, Massachusetts. The young boy probably learned his letters in a one-room schoolhouse and spent Sundays in worship.

In the 1790s, the United States included the eastern states and land south of the Great Lakes and west to the Mississippi River. The Northwest Territory—the land west of Pennsylvania between the Ohio and Mississippi rivers—was just opening up for settlement. Men who had fought in the Revolutionary War were seeking new opportunities and heading west. John Chapman, now a young man, decided to join them.

John took with him little more than his knowledge of planting apple orchards and his faith. His religion was new to America, and was based on the teachings of Emanuel Swedenborg. Swedenborg was a scientist, philosopher, and theologian. He believed that God was in every living thing and that good deeds should be done because this was the way of God. John lived his life according to these principles. He would not intentionally hurt any living thing, and he gave freely to those less fortunate than himself.

John dedicated his life to helping people. He planted apple orchards so families who followed him out west would have food. He read to families he visited from a book about his religion, or left religious passages or books with them. He loved children and would talk to them and listen to their stories. He gained the respect of the Indians he met as he traveled the woods and rivers of the new territories.
John gathered apple seeds whenever he could. Sometimes he collected them from cider mills. He would separate the seeds from the apple pulp, then wash and dry them. He walked the land that pioneers would eventually come to and planted orchards for their benefit.

If John came upon a pioneer family at a time that was not right for planting, he might leave a bag of seeds with them. The children would always want to know how long it would be until the seeds turned into apples.

John planted trees wherever he went, usually in clearings near rivers or streams. He surrounded his plantings with natural fences of brush and branches to keep animals away.

Sometimes he let the trees grow right where he had planted them. But usually he’d return after two years and take the saplings, pack them carefully, and leave them at a way station, with a family, or at an inn, in exchange for clothing, food, or money. Sometimes he gave the trees away.

John Chapman planted thousands of apple trees as far west as Indiana. His unusual ways, kindness, and giving heart made him known to pioneers he had never met. You might know him by his other, more popular name: Johnny Appleseed.

Arbor Day Celebrates Our Love of Trees America’s love of trees is still strong and growing. Every year the United States celebrates Arbor Day, a national holiday that had its beginnings in Nebraska. According to the holiday’s founder, Julius Sterling Morton: “Other holidays repose upon the past; Arbor Day proposes for the future.” Like John Chapman, Morton came west to grow trees. The trees he planted on the Nebraska plains would help block mighty winds, keep moisture in the soil, and provide shade, lumber, fuel, and food. Morton urged others to grow trees, but it wasn’t until he proposed that one day each year be set aside to honor tree planting that his idea caught on. On the first celebration of Arbor Day, in 1872, more than a million trees were planted in Nebraska. Arbor Day became a legal holiday in Nebraska on April 22, 1885, the anniversary of Morton’s birth. In other states and throughout the world, Arbor Day is observed on different dates, depending on the best times to plant trees.