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In Defense of Johnny Appleseed - essay by Nan Paget, Oct 2009
 In Defense of Johnny Appleseed

       I watched the two-hour program,    The Botany of Desire, on Channel 9 last Sunday, partly out of interest in the topic but also out of some concern re its representation of Johnny Appleseed. Reviews of Michael Pollan's book on which the program was based gave me the idea that Pollan disapproved of John Chapman or was engaged in misrepresenting him and his role as nurseryman in the Ohio Valley in the early 1900s.
       The program presented the idea that plants utilize human beings in order to achieve survival and wider dispersal, especially those plants which appeal to us by their beauty (tulips) , sweetness (apples), intoxicating qualities (marijuana), or control (potatoes). It gave half an hour to each of these plants.
       The apple, which originated in Central Asia, was transported to Europe and then to the New World. Pollan contends that these primitive apples were sour and that their only benefit was that they could be made into hard cider.  He concludes that John Chapman planted these  basic apples and was thus somehow responsible for causing drunkenness on the frontier farms.
       To be fair, much of his presentation was accurate. He showed Chapman as the religious man that he was, and even included the singing of a verse of Johnny Appleseed's Grace, which we still sing on occasion at church.
       However, he concludes, and states twice in the program, that Johnny was "a bum".  Not so, Michael!
       Yes, he was eccentric, no question about it. He was a proponent and practitioner of the simple life-- even more so than Thoreau, who after all spent only two months in the Walden woods.
       And perhaps the making of hard cider was not so bad.  After all, it was a food, one way to preserve the apples through the winter, a clean beverage (water then being unreliable), and even a source of pleasure through hard weather and hard farm labor.
       In contrast, Michael Pollan seemed quite sympathetic toward the growing of marijuana--another intoxicant.
       Yes, John Chapman had religious objections to grafting, as being unnatural, not God-given. Yet evidently some of his apple trees grown from seed bore sweet apples.
       He certainly filled a need for those farmers homesteading in the Ohio Valley.  By law, homesteaders were required to plant fifty fruit trees. John started many nurseries on land he purchased, and planted the apple seeds there. Seedlings then were sold to the homesteaders for a few cents. John hired neighbors to sell them, and came through the territory once or twice a year to check on them.  He would give the families parts of Swedenborg's books, saying, "Here's the good news, fresh from Heaven!"
       He was a friend to man and beast, and was respected by the local Indians.  However, he did run through the woods all night to warn the residents of Fort Wayne about an impending Indian attack. Fort Wayne has a park and annual event named for him.
       He was not a bum, Michael.  He was a good man who worked all his life to help others. He lived as simply as possible, though he died a wealthy man.  He was a legend, and one of our Swedenborgian saints.
                                       Nan Paget, 10/30/2009

Creation date: Nov 1, 2009 3:40pm     Last modified date: Nov 1, 2009 3:40pm   Last visit date: Dec 2, 2025 3:32am
2 / 1000 comments
Nov 1, 2009  ( 1 comment )  
11/1/2009
6:15pm
Doug Stinson (dstinson)
Wonderful essay, Nan! Keep writing!
Nov 5, 2009  ( 1 comment )  
11/5/2009
4:52pm
bobkath (bobkath)
Greetings Nan, 
 
While I enjoyed Michael Pollen's book... how could he!! Besmirch Appleseed? One of our own.
Wonderfully written Nan. Your words are always appreciated. Cheers, the best, Katherine and Robert