This earliest drawing of John Chapman appeared as a frontis

352 Pages·2008·26.94 MB·English

This earliest drawing ofJohn Chapman appearedasafrontis
piece in H. S. Knapp's History of the Pioneer and Modern
Times of Ashland County, Ohio, 1863. Said to have been
drawn in the 1850'S by astudent of Oberlin College who had
knownChapman; it corresponds to the verbal description fur
nishedto Henry Howein 1845by Miss RosellaRiceof Perrys
ville. A later artist changedthe strange headgearto anormally
brimmed hat and the result became the standard picture of
Johnny Appleseed now engraved in American folklore.
JOHNNYAPPLESEED: EARLIESTDRAvVING
Johnny
Appleseed
MAN AND MYTH
by Robert Price
GLOUCESTER, MASS.
PETER SMITH
Copyright, 1954, by Robert Price
Reprinted, 1967, by Permissionof
Indiana UniversityPress
DEDICATED TO
H.
WHO FOLLOWS ALL THETRAILS
WITH ME
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
author is grateful to the writers and publishers
THE
listed below for permission to quote specific passages
from the works named: Appleton-Century-Crofts,
"The Apple-Barrel of Johnny Appleseed," from
Going to the Sun, by Vachel Lindsay; Frances Frost
and the publishers, "American Ghost," Neu: York
Herald Tribune, August 21, 1943; The Macmillan
Company, "In Praise of Johnny Appleseed," from
Johnny AppleseedandOther Poems,by Vachel Lind
say; Rinehart and Company, "Johnny Appleseed,"
from A Book of Americans, copyright, 1933, by
Rosemary and Stephen Vincent Benet.
CONTENTS
FOREWORD xi
PART ONE Into the Old Northwest
I A Trail from New England 3
2 High Adventure on the Allegheny 20
3 Apples on the Border 35
4 The Johnny Appleseed Country 53
PART TWO The Voice of One Crying in the
Wilderness 77
5 The Watchman at the Gates 79
6 A Piece of Ground 102
7 A Very Extraordinary Missionary 119
PART THREE The Legend Takes Root 145
8 Portrait at Fifty 147
9 The Folk Tales Grow 161
PART FOUR Farther West lSI
10 Along the Land Bridge 183
1I To the Fort Wayne Summit 200
12 Last Journeys 209
Vll
viii CONTENTS
PART FIVE From Man to Myth
13 A Time to Die
14 The Vanity of Riches
15 The Legend Flowers
APPENDICES
NOTES 279
SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY 299
INDEX
ILLUSTRATIONS
Earliest Drawing of John Chapman Frontispiece
FacingPage
John Chapman's Birthplace 16
OfficialBirth Record 16
Boyhood Home of John Chapman 16
Longmeadow Meetinghouse 17
Simonds Homstead 17
Appletree Order 48
Johnny Appleseed Country (map) 48
Mount Vernon, Ohio (map) 49
JohnnyAppleseed Country: NorthCentralOhio 88
Mohican State Forest 88
Mansfield Blockhouse 89
Copus Massacre Monument 89
Black Fork Massacre: Newspaper Article 1°4
Zimmer Cabin 1°4
Ohio Country (map) 1°5
Mansfield Public Square 152
Artist's Concept of Johnny Appleseed 153
Application for Land 153
ix
x ILLUSTRATIONS
FacingPage
"Here's your primitive Christian" 168
"The Tribes of the heathen ..." 168
Standard Johnny Appleseed 169
"News right fresh from Heaven" 169
Ashland Memorial 216
First Cabin in Richland County 216
Johnny Appleseed Memorial Bridge 217
Traditional Grave Site of John Chapman 217
The Maumee and Defiance 217
American Folklore Group 232
The Johnny Appleseed Theme in Commercial Advertising 232
JohnnyAppleseed'sLast Haunts: NorthwesternOhio 233
Ashland, Ohio 233
SPOT DRAWINGS BY H. LAWRENCE HOFFMAN