John Chapman was born and bred to be a preacher. His father, Dr. John Chapman, was pastor of the Pilgrim Church of Redham, Massachusetts, and he had sent John the younger to Harvard for a proper education befitting a man who would ascend to the pulpit of his fathers church. John graduated with honors from Harvard, then returned home to Redham to continue his training as an apprentice to his father.
But when his childhood sweetheart, whom he had expected to marry at the proper time, died, the comfort of the pulpit lost its appeal. John was certain that God does nothing by accident or out of malice, and he assumed that God had allowed his dear sweethearts death so that John could be free to do Gods greater will for his life.
John was aware of the rising tide of settlers moving out to the wilderness to establish settlements, forts, towns and states, and felt the call to go westward over the Alleghenies with them, although he didnt think he was well-suited to wilderness life since his childhood had been so genteel and protected. He went to the woods outside of Redham to retreat and listen for Gods call.
While wondering in the woods, he came to an open glade in which someone had planted an apple orchard many years before. He remembered that his father told him that the seeds for that orchard had been brought to Redham on the Mayflower or some other ship of early settlers to the New World. These seeds had been planted while the land was still wild, and while food was unreliable, by people who knew that they could not reap a harvest from them for at least five years. He marveled at the trees, more than one hundred years old and still bearing fruit, and he marveled at the foresight of those pioneers from the Old World, who carried the seeds, full of hope that the seeds would grow in the strange soil of the New World and nourish their children for generations to come. He understood for the first time the love that brought those seeds and planted them for childrens childrens children to eat. John Chapman realized that food is love and that seeds of fruit trees are love yet unborn.
John then knew Gods highest calling on his life.
On that day, he began the journey, both physical and spiritual, that would earn him the name, Johnny Appleseed.
John journeyed to famous orchards that he knew on the Potomac River and bought seeds from their best trees and carried them to Fort Pitt, where he bought a boat for the trip down the Ohio River to the wild country of Ohio and Kentucky. Each night he pulled up in the bank of the and wherever he found an open glade, he stopped to plant thousands of seeds that would grow to become an orchard. His goal was to plant one hundred orchards for the coming settlers, so they would have healthy, wholesome fruit waiting when they reached their homestead and settlements. With each seed he planted, he prayed that the trees would prosper and even flourish, and he prayed for the settlers who would find them and be fed by them. He committed each tree into the hands of God for the purposes of God.
As John Chapman traveled around Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana, Illinois and even as far as where St Louis stands now, he planted and tended his tiny gardens of Eden so that each would be in full health and producing maximum crops when the settlers might arrive. But he also planted spiritual seeds, as he left signs on the orchards containing Bible verses to encourage the weary men and women who were living in isolation in this virgin land.
Johnny Appleseed was a mysterious figure in the wilderness. Settlers would find his orchards, and his signs, and wonder at the man who might have planted them. Many rumors about him became legends, and many of the legends grew to be myths. Because he was humble and afraid to settle down, he spent most of his time in the woods, in solitary meditation. A few times over the years, the ache for human companionship and the creature comforts of settlement would bring him to live in some fort or town for a winter, but largely, he was alone with the forest and his God.
On those occasions that he wintered in a settlement, he was known as a man of peace. Once, coming into a town in which there was a lot of sickness (probably typhus), he spent his own money to built a hospital and spent the entire season nursing the ailing and burying the dead.
Another time, a crooked government in a particular settlement was cheating good, hard-working folks out of their hard-earned homesteads, and John organized a peaceful revolt that tossed out the corrupt governors and established a just government.
Another time, he defended a man who he knew was a horse thief, appealing to the better natures of the judge and jury, asking for mercy for the mans wife and child who would be left homeless and defenseless in the wilderness if the man was executed. And the man that he defended was his own enemy who had cheated John out of his inheritance and tried to kill him. During the trial, John Chapman simply said that Jesus commanded that Christians are to love their enemies, and there was no greater enemy to him than the man he was defending. He judge and jury, moved by Chapmans love, convicted the horse thief, but commuted his sentence to life toiling in the wilderness to build a homestead for his wife and child.
John Chapman established a permanent school in the wilderness when he witnessed the poor children of the settlers who had no school and no teacher. When he realized that they couldnt even read or write, he asked himself how they could ever experience the God of the Bible, and he set aside his orchard work for a full year to teach the little ones until a permanent teacher could be hired.
Every move Johnny Appleseed made, every seed he planted, whether horticultural or spiritual, was done out of love for God and for the settlers. He said, God does not save a man merely to keep him out of Hell, and he meant by this that God saves us to do loving works for the others around him. He often quoted James 2:26, For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also. John felt that loving actions toward his fellow man, even his enemies, was an integral part of his faith in Christ.
One summer, John Chapman came down with malaria while camping on the banks of the Wabash River. The fever affected his body and mind. He knew he was sick and needed to get to a settlement to find help, because he would die if he stayed out exposed in the weather of the wilderness with no shelter. Although the fever was raging in his body, John got up and started to walk to a settlement near what is now Fort Wayne, Indiana. His body was chilled from the fever, despite the hot summer weather, so he emptied a sack of his precious apple seeds and put the sack on like a tunic for warmth. He couldnt find his hat, so he put his cooking pot on his head to keep himself warmer. It is unfortunate that most legends of Johnny Appleseed depict him as always wearing this odd garb, and neglect to mention that he wore it out of necessity while he was ill. When he regained his health many months later, he took off the sack and the pot and resumed wearing normal clothing. But he never fully recovered his health.
His final year was spent in a Quaker colony, as befitting a man of peace.
After his death, among his few worldly things, his Bible was found. It was well-worn, nearly worn out, and some pages had faded to the point that they could hardly be read. Inside was a slip of paper with a quote from a man named Swedenborg, that had a verse of poetry about how every seed planted down here plants a seed in heaven, and how every piece of fruit that comes to ripeness down here is synchronous with the ripening of spiritual fruit in heaven. This saying must have comforted the old orchardist in his last days, to think that his work on earth would bear him fruit in heaven.
But because of this slip of paper, some people assume that he was not a Christian, but a member of a cult. But John Chapmans speeches, his few writings, and others memories of him show that he was always a man of Christ, in the service of Christ.
John Chapman, Johnny Appleseed, was a man of God, a man who loved God, loved his fellow man, and loved his enemies, and never gave up his service to God.
He is a Christian Hero.
But when his childhood sweetheart, whom he had expected to marry at the proper time, died, the comfort of the pulpit lost its appeal. John was certain that God does nothing by accident or out of malice, and he assumed that God had allowed his dear sweethearts death so that John could be free to do Gods greater will for his life.
John was aware of the rising tide of settlers moving out to the wilderness to establish settlements, forts, towns and states, and felt the call to go westward over the Alleghenies with them, although he didnt think he was well-suited to wilderness life since his childhood had been so genteel and protected. He went to the woods outside of Redham to retreat and listen for Gods call.
While wondering in the woods, he came to an open glade in which someone had planted an apple orchard many years before. He remembered that his father told him that the seeds for that orchard had been brought to Redham on the Mayflower or some other ship of early settlers to the New World. These seeds had been planted while the land was still wild, and while food was unreliable, by people who knew that they could not reap a harvest from them for at least five years. He marveled at the trees, more than one hundred years old and still bearing fruit, and he marveled at the foresight of those pioneers from the Old World, who carried the seeds, full of hope that the seeds would grow in the strange soil of the New World and nourish their children for generations to come. He understood for the first time the love that brought those seeds and planted them for childrens childrens children to eat. John Chapman realized that food is love and that seeds of fruit trees are love yet unborn.
John then knew Gods highest calling on his life.
On that day, he began the journey, both physical and spiritual, that would earn him the name, Johnny Appleseed.
John journeyed to famous orchards that he knew on the Potomac River and bought seeds from their best trees and carried them to Fort Pitt, where he bought a boat for the trip down the Ohio River to the wild country of Ohio and Kentucky. Each night he pulled up in the bank of the and wherever he found an open glade, he stopped to plant thousands of seeds that would grow to become an orchard. His goal was to plant one hundred orchards for the coming settlers, so they would have healthy, wholesome fruit waiting when they reached their homestead and settlements. With each seed he planted, he prayed that the trees would prosper and even flourish, and he prayed for the settlers who would find them and be fed by them. He committed each tree into the hands of God for the purposes of God.
As John Chapman traveled around Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana, Illinois and even as far as where St Louis stands now, he planted and tended his tiny gardens of Eden so that each would be in full health and producing maximum crops when the settlers might arrive. But he also planted spiritual seeds, as he left signs on the orchards containing Bible verses to encourage the weary men and women who were living in isolation in this virgin land.
Johnny Appleseed was a mysterious figure in the wilderness. Settlers would find his orchards, and his signs, and wonder at the man who might have planted them. Many rumors about him became legends, and many of the legends grew to be myths. Because he was humble and afraid to settle down, he spent most of his time in the woods, in solitary meditation. A few times over the years, the ache for human companionship and the creature comforts of settlement would bring him to live in some fort or town for a winter, but largely, he was alone with the forest and his God.
On those occasions that he wintered in a settlement, he was known as a man of peace. Once, coming into a town in which there was a lot of sickness (probably typhus), he spent his own money to built a hospital and spent the entire season nursing the ailing and burying the dead.
Another time, a crooked government in a particular settlement was cheating good, hard-working folks out of their hard-earned homesteads, and John organized a peaceful revolt that tossed out the corrupt governors and established a just government.
Another time, he defended a man who he knew was a horse thief, appealing to the better natures of the judge and jury, asking for mercy for the mans wife and child who would be left homeless and defenseless in the wilderness if the man was executed. And the man that he defended was his own enemy who had cheated John out of his inheritance and tried to kill him. During the trial, John Chapman simply said that Jesus commanded that Christians are to love their enemies, and there was no greater enemy to him than the man he was defending. He judge and jury, moved by Chapmans love, convicted the horse thief, but commuted his sentence to life toiling in the wilderness to build a homestead for his wife and child.
John Chapman established a permanent school in the wilderness when he witnessed the poor children of the settlers who had no school and no teacher. When he realized that they couldnt even read or write, he asked himself how they could ever experience the God of the Bible, and he set aside his orchard work for a full year to teach the little ones until a permanent teacher could be hired.
Every move Johnny Appleseed made, every seed he planted, whether horticultural or spiritual, was done out of love for God and for the settlers. He said, God does not save a man merely to keep him out of Hell, and he meant by this that God saves us to do loving works for the others around him. He often quoted James 2:26, For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also. John felt that loving actions toward his fellow man, even his enemies, was an integral part of his faith in Christ.
One summer, John Chapman came down with malaria while camping on the banks of the Wabash River. The fever affected his body and mind. He knew he was sick and needed to get to a settlement to find help, because he would die if he stayed out exposed in the weather of the wilderness with no shelter. Although the fever was raging in his body, John got up and started to walk to a settlement near what is now Fort Wayne, Indiana. His body was chilled from the fever, despite the hot summer weather, so he emptied a sack of his precious apple seeds and put the sack on like a tunic for warmth. He couldnt find his hat, so he put his cooking pot on his head to keep himself warmer. It is unfortunate that most legends of Johnny Appleseed depict him as always wearing this odd garb, and neglect to mention that he wore it out of necessity while he was ill. When he regained his health many months later, he took off the sack and the pot and resumed wearing normal clothing. But he never fully recovered his health.
His final year was spent in a Quaker colony, as befitting a man of peace.
After his death, among his few worldly things, his Bible was found. It was well-worn, nearly worn out, and some pages had faded to the point that they could hardly be read. Inside was a slip of paper with a quote from a man named Swedenborg, that had a verse of poetry about how every seed planted down here plants a seed in heaven, and how every piece of fruit that comes to ripeness down here is synchronous with the ripening of spiritual fruit in heaven. This saying must have comforted the old orchardist in his last days, to think that his work on earth would bear him fruit in heaven.
But because of this slip of paper, some people assume that he was not a Christian, but a member of a cult. But John Chapmans speeches, his few writings, and others memories of him show that he was always a man of Christ, in the service of Christ.
John Chapman, Johnny Appleseed, was a man of God, a man who loved God, loved his fellow man, and loved his enemies, and never gave up his service to God.
He is a Christian Hero.
