Johnny Appleseeds of Change
Beth Anz
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kYtowR5qDIU
Once upon a time, a man, a myth, a mystic and a legend
wandered the young American Countryside.
And with him he brought his gospel, and appleseeds.
This wandering evangelist was named John Chapman,
better known to us as Johnny Appleseed.
He had a remarkable life and left a lasting impression
on the American countryside, using both the seeds
of apples and faith, to shape the lives of many.
And through his story, I believe, so can we.
John Chapman was born in Massachusetts around
independence day 1774, but it is in 1801 in
Licking Creek, Ohio, where we first see the seeds
of his legend. Farmer John Stedden recalled a rather
eccentric man who planned to head west
and plant apple seeds for future farmers.
Five years later, another early Ohio settler found
this eccentric man, barefoot, dressed in rags with
a sack and a tin pot or bowl on his head as a hat.
He was paddling two canoes together, one was
filled with apple seeds.
John Chapman began his journey to the legendary
Johnny Appleseed as an orchardist’s business
apprentice before he set out on his own.
He didn’t regard any earthly woman as wholesome
enough for him, so he was a single man throughout his life.
He was friendly, but preferred a life of solitude.
He had over 1000 acres to his name by the
end of his life, but never flaunted his wealth.
He ran a thriving business, but was not the best book
keeper, so the extent of his influence may never
be fully known. He has been described by others
as devout, sharing books of his faith wherever he
went, yet primitive, sleeping anywhere he could
and living independent of any wants or desires.
His simple life was greatly influenced by his
religious beliefs. He was a follower of the
Church of New Jerusalem and Swedish Christian
mystic Emanuel Swedenborg, a scientist-turned-prophet
who had admirers from many prominent
19th century figures, from W.B. Yeats and
Robert Frost to Ralph Waldo Emerson.
The fundamental Swedenborgian tenets that
Chapman taught were nonviolence, the universality
of Being, and the connectedness of the universe.”
They believed that God could be most experienced
through nature and simple living.
In fact, one tale says he walked barefoot because
he gave his only pair of shoes to a frontier family in need.
In other acts of generosity, he was known to stay
and teach settlers how to care for the orchards
he planted along the way. Real faith, he believed,
was manifested in acts of charity and
commitment to a life of usefulness.
He was also a vegetarian and believed in the
rights of animals, which was unorthodox at the time.
He cared for sick animals and even legend has it,
once quenched his own campfire to save the lives
of mosquitoes drawn to the flame.
Lots of other tall tales are told of ways John Chapman
sacrificed his own comfort so as not to upset
wild animals on the frontier.
An interesting fact about this seed evangelism
of Johnny Appleseed. His faith explicitly forbade
grafting trees (attaching branches to existing roots),
believing it to cause suffering and removing
their god given right to grow.
So in this act of compassion, he planted only seeds
from cider mills, and created nurseries throughout
the frontier with natural items like fallen trees or bushes,
preaching and planting as he traveled.
And John Chapman was extremely popular for planting
these seeds. Beyond the apples produced,
was the service he provided to future homesteaders.
At the time the Frontier homesteads were required
to plant 50 apple trees and 20 peach trees in three
years and then they would be granted 100 acres of land.
Planting and caring for orchards was seen as an
intent to stay, tying people to the land, and creating
sustainability for growing communities.
So John Chapman created these orchards with
seemingly divine inspiration, where settlers would come.
He started his business by contracting locals to
care for those trees while he continued to travel,
plant, and preach Swedenborgian teachings
to whoever would listen.
He would return to his orchards when the settlers
arrived and either sell or barter those orchards
to the new settlers creating for himself a
thriving business on the frontier and a
reputation for generosity.
He was not only regarded well by settlers but by
some of the indigenous natives as well.
Although he did cause tensions with his contributions
to their displacement, they generally respected
his simple lifestyle, friendliness and knowledge of
plants and therefore, mostly left him alone.
Some even considered him “touched” by the great spirit.
John Chapman’s planting methods made his
nurseries unique in the variety of apples they produced.
As mentioned before, he would not graft trees,
he planted seeds. If you want consistency in your apples,
it requires grafting.
Therefore Johnny Appleseed didn’t just plant
acres of apples, he planted thousands of different
heirloom species. There were in fact more than
14,000 known varieties of apple in the U.S. in 1905,
bearing colorful names like the “Sheep’s Snout,”
“Hornet Sweeting” or “Green Everlasting,”
and Johnny Appleseed played a major part in that biodiversity.
Because of the wide variety of species,
many apples were bitter and not appealing to eat.
So those were used in the making of cider.
Being on the frontier with limited options for clean
drinking water, Cider was often used as currency
in the frontier and essential to survival for both
drinking and canning. Not to mention he was
bringing the gift of alcohol to the frontier and
therefore was welcomed heartily.
It gives new meaning to the Johnny Appleseed Song
Oh, the Lord’s been good to me.
And so I thank the Lord
For giving me the things I need:
The sun, the rain and the appleseed;
Oh, the Lord's been good to me.
Most of those species are lost to us today.
During prohibition, these heirloom orchards
were destroyed, and the rise in the popularity of
hops gave way to less variety. So by the late
20th century we essentially had
3 varieties - red, yellow and green.
There is a modern movement to restart that
apple variety spirit of Johnny Appleseed.
One of its modern evangelists is an apple breeder
named David Bedford, who discovered and
diversified the popular sweet Honeycrisp.
In the beginning, no one wanted his apples.
The grocery stores already had red and
yellow and green, they didn’t want
anything new or different.
But David Bedford continued to grow, and bet
that someday grocery stores would be ready for change.
And when they finally tried it, it not only sold well,
it was their top product, it sold more than coca cola.
And once that happened, the Apple revolution began.
And today the apple has 200 unique varieties
ranging from sweet to sour, big to small, red to green.
So never doubt that a small seed has the power
to grow into a mighty orchard. That when
we plant diverse seeds in our garden, we get a
wonderful variety. That we can innovate, that
we can create change.
Even if everyone is not ready to hear or taste that variety,
someday they will be. Plant your orchard,
and someday it will bear fruit. Maybe not for us,
but we can plant seeds now for our future.
The legacy of Johnny Appleseed has inspired
millions to plant trees and help others,
and who could ask for a better legacy than that.
Never doubt that like Johnny Appleseed we are walking
our faith by sharing the seeds of love and community.
Never doubt a small seed can have a big impact.
Johnny Appleseed left us a legacy, to be seeds of change,
of kindness, of generosity. Teaching us to plant the
seeds of tomorrow, to transform our world.
Even a man, barefoot in the wilderness, with
a sack of seeds and a pot on his head can change the world,
and therefore, so can we.
