Editing Johnny Appleseed (section)

==Life==
[[File:Johnny Appleseed Birthplace - Leominster, Massachusetts - DSC09158.jpg|thumb|right|Johnny Appleseed Birthplace site in Leominster, Massachusetts]]

There are stories of Johnny Appleseed practicing his nurseryman craft in the area of [[Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania]], and of picking seeds from the [[pomace]] at [[Potomac River]] cider mills in the late 1790s.<ref name=swedhist /> Another story has Chapman living in [[Pittsburgh]] on Grant's Hill in 1794 at the time of the [[Whiskey Rebellion]].<ref name="post-gazette">{{cite web|url=http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/07329/836343-109.stm|title=The Next Page: A People's History of Pittsburgh (Selected shorts)|work=Pittsburgh Post-Gazette|access-date=January 11, 2008|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080122045429/http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/07329/836343-109.stm|archive-date=January 22, 2008|url-status=live}}</ref>

The popular image is of Johnny Appleseed spreading apple seeds randomly everywhere he went. In fact, he planted nurseries rather than orchards, built fences around them to protect them from livestock and wildlife, left the nurseries in the care of a neighbor who sold trees on shares, and returned every year or two to tend the nursery. He planted his first nursery on the bank of [[Brokenstraw Creek]], south of [[Warren, Pennsylvania]]. Next, he seems to have moved to [[Venango County]], along the shore of [[French Creek (Allegheny River)|French Creek]],<ref name="schmidtbio">{{cite web |url=http://pabook.libraries.psu.edu/palitmap/bios/Chapman__John.html |title=John Chapman |publisher=Pabook.libraries.psu.edu |access-date=June 6, 2015 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150506083838/http://pabook.libraries.psu.edu/palitmap/bios/Chapman__John.html |archive-date=May 6, 2015}}</ref> but many of these nurseries were in the [[Mohican River]] area of north-central [[Ohio]]. This area included the towns of [[Mansfield, Ohio|Mansfield]], [[Lisbon, Ohio|Lisbon]], [[Lucas, Ohio|Lucas]], [[Perrysville, Ohio|Perrysville]] and [[Loudonville, Ohio|Loudonville]].<ref name=harpers830-1>{{cite magazine |title=Johnny Appleseed: A Pioneer Hero |magazine=[[Harper's New Monthly Magazine]] |year=1871 |issue=XLIII |pages=830–831 |url=https://harpers.org/archive/1871/11/johnny-appleseed-a-pioneer-hero/ |url-access=subscription |access-date=October 8, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181009052735/https://harpers.org/archive/1871/11/johnny-appleseed-a-pioneer-hero/ |archive-date=October 9, 2018 |url-status=live }}. {{Internet Archive |id=johnnyappleseedp00hale |name=Full text of "Johnny Appleseed: a pioneer hero"}}.</ref>

In 1817, a bulletin of the [[The New Church (Swedenborgian)|Church of New Jerusalem]] printed in [[Manchester|Manchester, England]] was the first to publish a written report about Chapman. It described a missionary who traveled around the West to sow apple seeds and pass out books of [[The New Church (Swedenborgian)|The New Church]].<ref name=":1">{{Cite book |last=Aron |first=Paul |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KnjnDwAAQBAJ&dq=Where+now+is+there+a+man+who,+like+the+primitive+Christians,+is+traveling+to+heaven+barefooted+and+clad+in+coarse+raiment&pg=PA106 |title=American Stories: Washington's Cherry Tree, Lincoln's Log Cabin, and Other Tales—True and Not-So-True—and How They Spread Throughout the Land |date=2020-08-01 |publisher=Rowman & Littlefield |isbn=978-1-4930-4233-3 |language=en |access-date=July 28, 2022 |archive-date=April 24, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230424043604/https://books.google.com/books?id=KnjnDwAAQBAJ&dq=Where+now+is+there+a+man+who,+like+the+primitive+Christians,+is+traveling+to+heaven+barefooted+and+clad+in+coarse+raiment&pg=PA106 |url-status=live }}</ref>

In 1819, Chapman was nearly killed in an accident in Ohio. One morning, he was picking his crops in a tree when he fell and caught his neck in the fork of the branches. Shortly after he fell, eight year-old John White found him struggling. White cut the tree down, saving Chapman's life.<ref>((Cite "The Illustrated Historical Family Record and Album"), Presented to Mrs. Isabelle White, by Miss Amanda White, December 25, 1888))</ref>

In 1822, the first known use of "John Appleseed" was written in a letter from a member of the New Church.<ref name=":1"/>

According to ''[[Harper's New Monthly Magazine]]'', toward the end of his career he was present when an itinerant missionary was exhorting an open-air congregation in [[Mansfield, Ohio]]. The sermon was long and severe on the topic of extravagance, because the pioneers were buying such indulgences as [[calico (textile)|calico]] and imported tea. "Where now is there a man who, like the primitive Christians, is traveling to heaven barefooted and clad in coarse raiment?" the preacher repeatedly asked, until Johnny Appleseed walked up to him, put his bare foot on the stump that had served as a pulpit, and said, "Here's your primitive Christian!"<ref name="harpers836">(1871) "Johnny Appleseed: A Pioneer Hero", ''Harper's New Monthly Magazine'', XLIII, 836</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Milburn |first=William Henry |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=a-8xAQAAMAAJ&dq=Where+now+is+there+a+man+who,+like+the+primitive+Christians,+is+traveling+to+heaven+barefooted+and+clad+in+coarse+raiment&pg=PA653 |title=The Lance, Cross and Canoe: The Flatboat, Rifle and Plough in the Valley of the Mississippi |date=1892 |publisher=N.D. Thompson Publishing Company |pages=653 |language=en |access-date=July 28, 2022 |archive-date=April 24, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230424043604/https://books.google.com/books?id=a-8xAQAAMAAJ&dq=Where+now+is+there+a+man+who,+like+the+primitive+Christians,+is+traveling+to+heaven+barefooted+and+clad+in+coarse+raiment&pg=PA653 |url-status=live }}</ref>

[[File:John-Chapman-Mansfield.jpg|thumb|alt=Monument to John Chapman in South Park, Mansfield, Ohio|Monument to John Chapman in South Park, Mansfield, Ohio]]
Author [[Rosella Rice]] met Chapman in his later years, and she stated in the 1863 ''History of [[Ashland County, Ohio]]'':<blockquote>His personal appearance was as singular as his character. He was a small, "chunked" man, quick and restless in his motions and conversation; his beard, though not long, was unshaven, and his hair was long and dark, and his eye black and sparkling. He lived the roughest life, and often slept in the woods. His clothing was mostly old, being generally given to him in exchange for apple-trees. He went bare-footed, and often traveled miles through the snow in that way.... [He] wore on his head a tin utensil which answered both as a cap and a mush pot.</blockquote>

Historian Paul Aron argues, "Chapman was actually a successful businessman. He bought many of the parcels of land on which he planted his seeds and ultimately accumulated about twelve hundred acres across three states.... He wore pauper's clothing by choice and not out of necessity."<ref name=":1" />

Chapman would tell stories to children and spread [[The New Church (Swedenborgian)|New Church]] teachings to the adults, receiving in return a floor to sleep on for the night, and sometimes supper. Rice stated, "We can hear him read now, just as he did that summer day, when we were busy quilting upstairs, and he lay near the door, his voice rising denunciatory and thrilling—strong and loud as the roar of wind and waves, then soft and soothing as the balmy airs that quivered the morning-glory leaves about his gray beard. His was a strange eloquence at times, and he was undoubtedly a man of genius."<ref name="harpers834">"Johnny Appleseed: A Pioneer Hero", ''Harper's New Monthly Magazine'', November 1871, page 834</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Milburn |first=William Henry |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=a-8xAQAAMAAJ&dq=%22strong+and+loud+as+the+roar+of+wind+and+waves%22&pg=PA650 |title=The Lance, Cross and Canoe: The Flatboat, Rifle and Plough in the Valley of the Mississippi |date=1892 |publisher=N.D. Thompson Publishing Company |pages=650 |language=en |access-date=July 28, 2022 |archive-date=April 24, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230424043603/https://books.google.com/books?id=a-8xAQAAMAAJ&dq=%22strong+and+loud+as+the+roar+of+wind+and+waves%22&pg=PA650 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name=":2">{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QxgWAAAAYAAJ&q=quilting |title=History of Ashland County, Ohio |date=1863 |publisher=Williams |pages=33 |language=en |access-date=July 28, 2022 |archive-date=April 24, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230424043604/https://books.google.com/books?id=QxgWAAAAYAAJ&q=quilting |url-status=live }}</ref>

Chapman cared deeply about animals, including insects. [[Henry Howe]] visited all the counties in Ohio in the early nineteenth century and collected several stories from the 1830s, when Johnny Appleseed was still alive:<ref>[[Henry Howe|Howe, Henry]] (1903). Richland County. Howe's [[Historical Collections of Ohio]] (485), New York:Dover.</ref>

<blockquote>One cool autumnal night, while lying by his camp-fire in the woods, he observed that the mosquitoes flew in the blaze and were burned. Johnny, who wore on his head a tin utensil which answered both as a cap and a mush pot, filled it with water and quenched the fire, and afterwards remarked, "God forbid that I should build a fire for my comfort, that should be the means of destroying any of His creatures."

Another time, he allegedly made a camp-fire in a snowstorm at the end of a hollow log in which he intended to pass the night, but he found it occupied by a bear and cubs, so he removed his fire to the other end and slept on the snow in the open air, rather than disturb the bear.</blockquote>

In a story collected by Eric Braun,<ref>{{cite book |last1=Braun |first1=Eric |date=August 28, 2014 |title=Johnny Appleseed Planted Trees Across the Land <!--format=paperback--> |others=Dustin Burkes-Larranaga (Illustrator) |publisher=Capstone Press |isbn=978-1-4795-5445-4 }}</ref> he had a pet wolf that had started following him after he healed its injured leg.

More controversially, he also planted [[Eupatorium capillifolium|dogfennel]] during his travels, believing that it was a useful medicinal herb. Although it is native to the southern and eastern United States, it spreads aggressively and can be difficult to manage.<ref name=harpers835 />

According to another story, he heard that a horse was to be put down, so he bought the horse, bought a few grassy acres nearby, and turned it out to recover. When it did, he gave the horse to someone needy, exacting a promise to treat it humanely.<ref name="jao26">"Johnny Appleseed, Orchardist," prepared by the staff of the Public Library of Fort Wayne and Allen Couth, November 1952, page 26</ref>

During his later life, he was a [[Vegetarianism|vegetarian]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Hillis |first=Newell Dwight |title=The Quest of John Chapman: The Story of a Forgotten Hero |year=1917 <!--(Copyright 1904)--> |publisher=The Macmillan Company |page=308 |isbn=1-4819-9661-4 }}</ref> Chapman chose not to marry, as he believed that he would find his soulmate in Heaven if she did not appear to him on Earth.<ref>{{cite book |last=Silverman|first=Ray |year=2012 |title=The Core of Johnny Appleseed: The Unknown Story of a Spiritual Trailblazer |page=73 |location=Pennsylvania |publisher=Swedenborg Foundation Press |isbn=978-0-87785-345-9 }}</ref>