Johnny Appleseed Day 2024 is on Friday, September 27, 2024: who is johnny appleseed and what did he do?
Friday, September 27, 2024 is Johnny Appleseed Day 2024.
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Johnny Appleseed is a well-known historic American figure, who's most noteable for his spreading of apple plants throughout Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois. He was a famous conservationalist, team man and spiritual figure, and populared and suched as for his kindness and kindness-- Johnny Appleseed Day memorializes his birth on September 26, 1774.
John Chapman, aka Johnny Appleseed
There is little authentic information available about Johnny's life with the new family. However, he did start his westward journey about 1797. "Johnny Appleseed" was not a scatter of seeds many people believe. He was a practical nurseryman. He realized that there was a real need and an opportunity for service in supplying seeds and seedlings.
For the most part, moving ahead of the pioneers, Johnny started many nurseries throughout the Midwest by planting seeds which he bought from cider mills in Pennsylvania. In order to assure stability of the newly established homesteads, the law required each settler to plant fifty apple trees the first year. Because of the poor transportation that existed in the interior in those days, apples were a practical necessity in the early settlers diets.
John Chapman, or Johnny Appleseed, owned many tracts of land throughout Ohio and Indiana. He used this land to plant apple seeds, transplant seedlings and set out orchards. He sold and gave trees to the pioneer settlers. John Chapman spread religion as well as apples.
What are the words to the Johnny Appleseed Song?
John, John, Johnny Appleseed
A friend of the creatures
And the birds in the trees.
John, John, Johnny Appleseed
He was a barefoot friend of the pioneers,
John Chapman, Johnny, Johnny Appleseed.
He was born long ago in the northeast woods
September 26th.
And he grew up loving those apple trees
And the fruit he loved to pick.
He pulled up stakes and headed West
With a pouch full of apple seeds
And he planted them for the pioneers
And gave them apple trees.
John, John, Johnny Appleseed
A friend of the creatures
And the birds in the trees.
John, John, Johnny Appleseed
He was a barefoot friend of the pioneers,
John Chapman, Johnny, Johnny Appleseed.
He lived in the woods like the Indians
And was friends to all he'd meet.
With a pot on his head, he didn't tote a gun
He lived a life he said was sweet.
Now through the years
When the blossoms bloom,
And we smell that apple pie
Apple cider, apple butter, making applesauce
Thanks to the man from days gone by!
John, John, Johnny Appleseed
A friend of the creatures
And the birds in the trees.
John, John, Johnny Appleseed
He was a barefoot friend of the pioneers,
John Chapman, Johnny, Johnny Appleseed.
John Chapman, Johnny, Johnny Appleseed.
What Craft was practiced by the folkloric John Chapman (Johnny Appleseed)?
Long ago on a fine spring day
Johnny Appleseed came this way
Over hill and meadow land
He scattered his seeds with a lavish hand.
Winesap, Bell Flower, Northern spy,
Apples for baking, apples for pie
Apples are gathered in orchards today
For Johnny Appleseed came this way. - Unknown
Day in, day out, and year by year,
From Licking Creek to the far frontier,
Johnny Appleseed comes and goes,
Comrade of every wind that blows.
The hills are his, and the winding streams,
His bark canoe and his cherished dreams,
With his sack of seeds, he goes again
Planting his orchards for other men.
Johnny Applesseed, fare you well.
Children’s children have lived to tell
How their fathers trekked to the frontier’s hem
And found your orchards awaiting them.
How their mothers wept with joy to see
The blossoming boughs of an apple tree.
And hearts took root in Ohio loam
And every orchard became a home. - Unknown
So he kept traveling, far and wide,
'Till his old limbs failed him and he died.
He said, at last: "'Tis a comfort to feel
I've done some good in the world, though not a great deal."
Weary travelers journeying West,
In the shade of his trees find pleasant rest,
And often they start with glad surprise
At the rosy fruit that around them lies.
And if they inquire whence came such trees
Where not a bough once swayed in the breeze?
The reply still comes as they travel on,
"These trees were planted by Appleseed John." - Maria Child
I thought to post these poems just for fun.
Edit:
Johnny Appleseed was an herbalist and one story is that he helped save a woman accused of witchcraft. He was also a vegetarian and would heal animals in his travels. He was quite extraordinary, no wonder his legend lives on.
Oh, and one more thing, he was an avid reader who would read to people or tell them stories, and encourage them to read. There is another story about a book saving his life.
Edit:
He appears to have been a seeker of truth and knowledge and this was perhaps his greatest craft.
Additional Detail (and maybe the one you are asking about):
"Johnny was fervently religious, and was always ready to talk with friends or strangers on high themes. His own little library of religious books, purchased with that part of his income not given away or used to relieve suffering, was freely lent to all who would take the books and read them."
"When his supply of whole books gave out, he would divide two or three of them into pieces and leave one chapter at each farm, to remain till his next visit, when he would exchange it for another chapter. The only difficulty with the scheme was that the readers rarely got the chapters in their proper order, but that troubled neither them nor their queer librarian."
I never would have thought John Chapman was a librarian. It's amazing what one can learn just by reading!
Additional detail: I lived in a small rural town and volunteered my services as a librarian during the years I lived there.
