History Focus
September 26

   
               

A short focus on a person or event associated with this day in History.


Johnny Appleseed
(1774-1845)

Born September 26 in 1774 was John Chapman, known to us today as Johnny Appleseed. Johnny Appleseed's primary mission was not to plant apples.

John Chapman was born in Leominster, Massachusetts on September 26, 1774. John Chapman became a well known figure on the American frontier in the early 1800's. He traveled westward planting apple seeds he had collected from cider presses in Pennsylvania. He spent his life planting and tending nurseries of apple seedlings over hundreds of square miles in what are now the states of Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois. This provided an item of great economic importance to the pioneers.

Much of what is known about Johnny is mixed with legend. He apparently traveled barefoot, wearing shabby clothing and a tin pot as a hat. He was never married, a vegetarian, a friend of the pioneer, a friend of the Indian, and a friend of the animals. There are numerous folk legends about this popular "holy" man. John Chapman is celebrated in frontier legends as a symbol of westward-moving American civilization, and he figures in literature in such works as In Praise of Johnny Appleseed (1923), by the American poet Vachel Lindsay.

Actually, John Chapman's life is an interesting footnote in the history of alternative religions. The American frontier was fertile ground for new religions. The pioneers prided themselves on their religious tolerance. Johnny Appleseed was very effective in disseminating unorthodox beliefs. In the frontier cabins he left not only apples, but also Swedenborgian literature. He especially left chapters from Swedenborg's "Heaven and Hell." This was one of more than 30 religious books by Swedenborg that attempted to correlate Christianity with messages he purportedly received from spirit guides. Johnny called it, "Good news fresh from heaven!" Johnny's primary mission was not to plant apples but to spread the word of a mystical and occultic religion (The Church of New Jerusalem) founded by Emmanuel Swedenborg.

Sources: Another Gospel - Ruth A. Tucker | Microsoft(R) Encarta(R)


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