At last week’s History Group meeting in the Javea Players’ Studio, Rosalind Miranda gave a thoroughly entertaining account of Johnny Appleseed, The True Story of an American Folk Hero. Johnny Appleseed (born John Chapman 1774 – 1845) was an American pioneer and entrepreneur, who introduced trees grown with apple seeds (as opposed to trees grown with grafting) to large parts of Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and Ontario, as well as the northern counties of West Virginia. He became an American legend in his lifetime and is still regarded as a folk hero in the United States.
The popular image is of Johnny Appleseed spreading apple seeds randomly everywhere he went, but Rosalind explained that they were planted purposefully in orderly plots, to enable him to then claim the freehold of the parcels of land. The frontier law allowed people to claim land by establishing a permanent homestead which could be planting 50 trees. Appleseed sold his apple trees very cheaply and kept on buying new plots to plant more seeds and grow more trees. He ultimately accumulated about twelve hundred acres across three states, becoming a millionaire.
Johnny Appleseed was somewhat eccentric, however, living the roughest life and often sleeping 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.
During the presentation Rosalind’s audience learned a lot about apples and how, from being known as “spitters”, some trees would occasionally bear good fruit and branches from these would then be grafted onto the trees whose fruit had previously only been good for making cider. Thus, today we have a very large selection of delicious apples. In Johnny Appleseed’s time, apples were mainly used for making cider, an alternative to drinking poor water, and the cider often had a high alcohol content, thus making sure that cider was banned during the prohibition years.
Rosalind’s talk was fascinating and amusing, and she received a well-deserved round of applause as Angela Chantry presented her with a thank you gift of a plant. Angela had stepped in on behalf of the group leader, Keith Smith, as he and Irina were away enjoying the travel group’s trip to Barcelona.
Angela thanked Tom Stevenson who had helped her to set up the presentation, Wendy Ranger who had manned the door collecting the entry fee and taking the photos of Miranda & Angela, and Ally O’Brien for choosing the plant for Rosalind.
