History of Cider in the US - Johnny Appleseed
Johnny Appleseed is an American folk hero, myth, and legend. But he was also an actual man. On this episode we go back to the time of John Chapman to relive his story and learn about his contribution to cider and the American apple culture. It’s a far cry from the happy go lucky Disney version but like with most legends, there are always seeds of truth.
Let’s go!
MUSICAL INTERLUDE
Hello!!
Welcome to Courage and Other C Words! I’m your host, Jenn Root Martell. Thanks for joining me today!
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You’ve been hearing from a lot of women recently so I’d like to switch it up a bit and dive back into some history. In the US History of Cider episodes 30 and 31 I mention a little bit about apple culture in this country and the influx of apple orchards that came with the arrival of the European settlers, mainly for making cider. I mentioned the name of Johnny Appleseed in passing in that first episode and thought he could use a little more time and attention. Though this episode goes off the usual tracks a little and highlights the work of a man in the cider industry, his role in the US cider and apple culture in this country cannot be ignored. And though his story is far from the happy go lucky fairytale that we might all remember from the early days of Disney when they actually told stories instead of just recreated the Mickey Mouse crew over and over and over again for the enjoyment of our toddlers, there are aspects of that yarn that make him both a US folk hero and a larger than life figure.
So I thought it would be fun, in honor of the start of back to school time, fall, harvest and the time for pressing apples for this year’s vintage of ciders that we take another trip back in history and learn a little more about the man we all know as Johnny Appleseed.
I also want to lead with my usual disclaimer that many of the words in this episode are not mine and I very much appreciate the people who have put in the time to put these words to paper and do the research that was necessary for us to enjoy them today. I have included a full reference list in this episode’s show notes and will include an annotated transcript and references on this episode’s page of the website. For I have worn the honors of honor from the University of Virginia and take plagiarism very very seriously. So with all that out of the way, lets begin:
This man of folklore was actually born John Chapman in Leominster, Massachusetts in September 1774. Also fitting to have this episode come out this month I guess. Great planning! Because it was 1774 and he was not a Founding Father, there is very little on the record about him and his family. His father, Nathaniel Chapman, fought as a minuteman at the Battle of Concord, and later served in the Continental Army under General George Washington. His mother died in childbirth when John was two and his father remarried soon after and continued building a family with the addition of 10 children in Massachusetts. 1, 3
With America’s newly won independence and a whole continent to explore, the end of the 18th century was a period of expansion and exploration. Getting swept up in this energy of the frontier, we do know that at 18 he headed to West with his younger brother in tow. They wandered around as nomads in Western Pennsylvania and the Ohio River Valley which is today parts of Indiana, until his father followed them in 1805 and set up a homestead. Nathaniel was by trade a farmer which might have helped plant some of the passion and knowledge around orchards and propagation that he used throughout his life. 1
John began an apprenticeship as an orchardist under a Mr. Crawford, who grew apples, thus inspiring Chapman's life journey of planting apple trees. In 1800, at the age of 26, Chapman was in Licking River, OH. His first orchard was on the farm of Isaac Stadden in Licking County. So we do know from record that by 1812, Chapman was working independently as an orchardist and nurseryman.
Around that same time, speculators and private companies were buying up huge swathes of land in the Northwest Territory, waiting for settlers to arrive. Starting in 1792, the Ohio Company of Associates made a deal with potential settlers: anyone willing to form a permanent homestead in the wilderness beyond Ohio's first permanent settlement would be granted 100 acres of land. To prove their homesteads to be permanent, settlers were required to plant 50 apple trees and 20 peach trees in three years, since an average apple tree took roughly ten years to bear fruit. 3
This is where the story veers from the Johnny Appleseed we know and love, scattering apple seeds piece meal all over the frontier. In fact, his born affinity for exploration had made him well known in Western Pennsylvania and Ohio. He knew the area so well because he literally walked all of it himself. Some say over 100,000 miles on foot. Pair that with his knowledge of orchard management and propagation and you get a person positioned perfectly to make a TON of money.
And that’s what he did. John Chapman, though kind of heart and a little eccentric which we will get to in a minute, was also a very very savvy businessman. He realized that if he could do the difficult work of planting the apple orchards, then he could turn them around for profit to incoming frontiersmen. John would study a map and use his experience in the backwoods to predict where people would flock next—the up-and-coming real-estate spots.
And a few years before everyone else headed to those spots, he’d go himself to plant apple trees. He transported the seeds in canoes, covered by damp moss to keep them moist. A single bushel basket held 300,000 seeds.
Upon arriving, he’d purchase some land, or else squat somewhere. Then he’d scatter seeds—not randomly, à la Disney, but in neat rows. At one time, he might have a dozen such nurseries going at different sites. Then he sat back and waited for settlers to arrive.
And arrive they did—he had a real nose for predicting the next big thing. At which point, John sold them his saplings for 6.5 cents each. Given that the trees cost him nothing to grow, and that he’d sell them by the thousands, he always turned a fat profit. Once he had sold off all of his apples he would move on to the next undeveloped place. 6
This is where the cider comes in. Because the apples that John was growing and selling were not the beautiful red and green orbs that we find at the grocery store today. No. These were more akin to crab apples. Apple trees grown from seeds, not grafted onto rootstock. Not fit for pies and to bite into but amazing for hard apple cider. Which, if you have listened to episode 30, you know was often valued higher than water back during the European colonization of this country. The process of fermentation cleaned out the bad bacteria, and the high acidity of the finished cider product made it safe to drink for a very long time. It really kept people going back then and was a mainstay in homes and on the dinner table. That, along with the necessity for planting fruit trees to stake your claim to homesteads made this a very very lucrative business model.
It is clearly less about the actions of the man but the character of the man that has stood the test of time and made him such a folk legend in this country. He really does sound like quite the character. There are several aspects of him as a person that not only show his human-ness but also some eccentricity that makes him so memorable.
For one his cheerfulness was pervasive and he had a generous nature - Chapman did show kindness to these struggling pioneers and would sometimes grant them the seedlings for free; this benevolent nature earned him the nickname “Johnny Appleseed” from grateful frontiersmen. 7
He had a great affinity for the wilderness and lived a nomad his entire life. Many stories tell of him sleeping in the carved out trunks of trees or strapping some rope and a sheet between two trees and using it as a hammock. Sometimes he would accept the hospitality of strangers and stay with them for a time in an actual bed, but it never lasted long. One story I love is that one winter he needed to make some headway along a river but had nowhere to stay and no boat to use so he cut a piece of ice and used it as both boat and bed to get him down the river. Somehow that totally tracks.
He also had a gentleness with animals - Once when he was walking and stepped on a bug he was so wrought with heartache that he threw the offending shoe away and walked without them. When camping in the woods with a friend they noticed all the insects buzzing around as they were building the campfire. John was so displeased that he said - God forbid that I should build a fire for my comfort, that should be the means of destroying any of his creatures. They immediately doused the flames and slept the night without it.
One notable characteristic found throughout the record was that he was extremely religious and the Bible was his favorite book. Chapman was a follower of the New Church, also known as the Church of Swedenborg, which has two essentials doctrines which constitute the church, and hence two principal things of doctrine—one, that there is one God, Jehovah; the other, that love to the Lord and charity toward the neighbor constitute the church, and not faith separate from love and charity." Thus, all who do good in accordance with the truth of their religion will be accepted into heaven (since God is goodness itself), and doing good joins one with God. 9 He spread his faith while traveling to establish orchards, preaching to both Anglo-American and Indigenous peoples he encountered along the way. Between his New Church beliefs and his care for the great outdoors he is remembered as always preaching an odd combination of Bible verses mixed with talk of the wonder and spiritual aspects of nature. 5
Having walked the land he maintained a great knowledge of medicinal herbs. He understood how to derive treatments using natural ingredients because he felt such a close connection to the earth and nature.
On another point Native Americans didn’t take kindly to settlers; however, John managed to win them over because, in addition to planting apples, he planted medicinal plants and herbs, such as mullein, motherwort, mayweed and pennyroyal, and more. By doing this, he was able to foster a friendship as well as admiration from Native Americans. 8
And lastly, no one can talk about John Chapman without mentioning his eccentric appearance. Much of which the folktales and even Disney got pretty right.
He had flowing hair under an inverted mush pan
He walked mostly bare foot to the point that the bottoms of them resembled a rhinoceros hide - gray and calloused. He delighted the children he came in contact with by putting coals to his feet or sticking needles in them saying he did not feel a thing
He wore ragged trousers, and an old coffee sack over his shoulders with holes cut out for arms. It was said that he would sometimes barter his apple seeds for discarded clothes as he traveled around.
Author Rosella Rice, who met Chapman in his later years, stated in the 1863 History of Ashland County, OH:
His personal appearance was as singular as his character. He was a small, "chunked" man, quick and restless in his motions and conversation; his beard, though not long, was unshaven, and his hair was long and dark, and his eye black and sparkling. He lived the roughest life, and often slept 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...He wore pauper's clothing by choice and not out of necessity."
Thus he continued throughout the years, building an apple empire and spreading the organized and well managed seeds of cider throughout the Northwest territories. Though there is some debate as to his actual date of death, he made it to 70 years old. Not too bad for a barefooted nomad in the 1800s.
His death is recorded as 1845 where he apparently passed away due to pneumonia from exposure. Though that is also apparently up for debate. Considering his habits of living on his own out in nature, it does track that this may be how he passed. At the time of his death he owned upwards of 1200 acres of land and orchards though the number is likely to have been more if he had kept better records. His estate ended up going to his sister who unfortunately needed to sell most of it off to cover back taxes.
In the end, the coming of Prohibition led to a rebranding of the apple, not as a “spitter” used to make alcohol but as a healthy, edible fruit that you would be able to and want to buy at the store. Companies vied for contracts with the government to propagate bigger, juicier, more “desirable” apples as a way of moving people away from the boozey version. For this reason, the orchards of John Chapman soon were destroyed to make way for more genetically modified and clone grafted trees. There are still a couple of small apple orchards in Maine that are maintained by John’s great, great, great, great nephew (also named John Chapman). At least one of those trees is said to be descended from his forebear’s own trees. 8 There is also one tree in Savannah, Ohio that is said to be the only tree planted by John Chapman that still survives. It is living well and still producing fruit.
So that is the sort of sad end to the American legend. But let’s not end with that. We need to end with what his legacy actually brought about and why he is remembered so fondly by all of us. Disney marketing aside.
For this I will defer to Michael Pollan and his words from the Botany of Desire. As an aside: If you haven’t read this book or anything by him, I encourage you to go out and grab one of his books. I’m pretty sure I have read everything he has written and they are all so well researched, easy to read, and super interesting. But back to apples:
Not all of the apples that came from Chapman's orchards were destined to be forgotten. Wandering the modern supermarket, we have Chapman to thank for varieties like the delicious, the golden delicious, and more. His penchant toward propagation by seed, Pollan argues, lent itself to creating the great—and perhaps more importantly—hardy American apple. Had Chapman and the settlers opted for grafting, the uniformity of the apple product would have lent to a staid and relatively boring harvest. "It was the seeds, and the cider, that give the apple the opportunity to discover by trial and error the precise combination of traits required to prosper in the New World," he writes. "From Chapman's vast planting of nameless cider apple seeds came some of the great American cultivars of the 19th century." 3, 4
So there you have it! The true story of Johnny Appleseed and some wonderful tall tales to go with it. Especially in these days of turmoil it helps to have heroes and myths to fall back on. From a time that was a little more rugged, more simple, more saturated with cider. But I think it is also fun to hear the story behind the legend and get a bit of a history lesson along with it. I hope you have enjoyed this episode and if there is another story that you’d like to hear, shoot me a note and let me know about it!
And that’s a wrap! Thank you to Tony Stuck for the awesome intro/outro music and to Mary Ann King for the amazing pod art that you see for every episode.
As I said at the start, I’m coming up on three years for this podcast. Kind of unbelievable to me actually. I feel like each interview, whether it has been a woman in the alcohol industry with a story to tell or a professional from outside who has advice to share, has opened my eyes to the amazing things that women are doing everyday and has sustained the motivation for me to continue with this podcast. I also have really enjoyed sharing my own story and more recently, my own struggles. I feel like that journey is going to just keep going and I can’t wait to bring you along. We are part of an amazing village and I hope that you who are listening are getting some inspiration and education out of it. But in order to grow this podcast and make sure others are able to learn from it I need your help. I would so appreciate it if you could go out and recommend this podcast to one other person. A family member, a nice looking person on the street. Or a not so nice person on the street. A fellow woman in the alcohol industry busting their butts everyday to get that beverage in the glass. The power of word of mouth is invaluable and I can’t thank you enough for the help.
For more information about me and this podcast visit us online at othercwords.com. For updates on episodes, highlights of good beverages, and sometimes breaking news in the alcohol industry, follow the podcast @othercwords on Instagram and Facebook. Talk to you soon! And thanks so much for joining me today
Referenced Works:
Johnny Appleseed, Wikipedia
Johnny Appleseed, American Nurseryman - Britannica
The Real Johnny Appleseed Brought Apples—and Booze—to the American Frontier, Smithsonian Magazine
The Botany of Desire: A Plant's-Eye View of the World, Michael Pollan
Johnny Appleseed - Biography
The Debaucherous Tale of Johnny Appleseed - Science History Institute, Museum and Library
Who was Johnny Appleseed - History Channel
The Legend of Johnny Appleseed - Apple Holler
And for your enjoyment: The Walt Disney Legend of Johnny Appleseed 1948
