Knox County celebrates Johnny Appleseed’s 250th birthday

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Posted on 09/29/2024 1:34:58 PM PDT by Borges

MOUNT VERNON — It is indeed a special event the county celebrates this week: the 250th birthday anniversary of John Chapman, better known as Johnny Appleseed.

His birth, on Sept. 26, 1774, in Leominster, Massachusetts, marks the beginning of a story that continues to be enjoyed by young and old alike.

He spent most of his long adult life sharing his religious faith with others, planting apple orchards so that pioneer families would have apples awaiting their arrival in the newly formed State of Ohio and beyond, and caring for animals, wildlife and friends who needed his assistance.

His life story has been told again and again in movies, radio and television productions, numerous scholarly biographies, and countless books for children of all ages.

For more than 20 years, Johnny called central Ohio his home, traveling throughout Knox, Licking, Richland, and Ashland counties tending his orchards. He is said to have voted in Mount Vernon’s first election, and we know he owned property on South Main Street near the river.

In 1828, when he decided to move on to western Ohio and Indiana, he sold one of his downtown lots to retiring United States Senator Jesse Burgess Thomas, who soon became a noted figure in the legal profession here.

It is likely that no other historical figure from the early days of the Ohio Country is better known today than Johnny Appleseed. Area school children are quite familiar with the many tales surrounding his life. They love the image of him roaming about, especially with his cooking pot worn as a hat.

Throughout the 179 years since his death on March 18, 1845, his story has continued to appeal to us. Ohio historian Harlan Hatcher nicely summarized this appeal in his essay commemorating the centennial of Johnny’s death. It is as appropriate today as it was nearly eighty years ago:

“Our interest in John Chapman, the nurseryman and evangelist, and in Johnny Appleseed, the St. Francis of the frontier, has never been brighter than it is at present.

The more we learn of John Chapman and his work, the firmer and larger grows the figure of Johnny Appleseed. New apple trees which he is said to have planted spring up in unexpected places, new stories of his tenderness, his benevolence, and his supernatural powers are born from the longing of the folk mind for these qualities in a strife-torn and warring world.

He is a fertile subject for fable, poetry, fiction, and art. His legend is not yet fully fashioned, and his spirit strides over the Ohio and Indiana cornfields, over the orchards and farms, where John Chapman walked and labored in the wilderness a century ago.

It is fitting that this modest tribute should be paid to his immortality on the centenary of his death.”

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1 posted on 09/29/2024 1:34:58 PM PDT by Borges

To: Borges

2 posted on 09/29/2024 1:38:17 PM PDT by linMcHlp

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