Born
John Chapman on this day in 1774, he earned his nickname by wandering
over large parts of Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois, introducing apple
trees by planting nurseries. He would return every year or two to
tend to his nursery, but while he was wandering he would leave the
nurseries in the care of a neighbor. He gave away many apple trees
but still ended up with a lot of valuable land and nurseries.
Johnny
Appleseed was considered kind and generous, and he was ahead of his
time in his thoughts about conservation and the treatment of animals.
Here
is a quickie story that shows some of those character traits. One day
Johnny Appleseed heard that a horse was going to be “put down”
due to an injury. (That means that the horse was going to be killed
in a humane, hopefully painless, way.) He saved the horse's life by
purchasing it. He then purchased a few acres of nice, grassy land on
which he could keep the injured horse. He allowed the horse to roam
around the land, eating grass and recovering from its injury. When
the horse was fully recovered, Johnny Appleseed gave the creature to
a poor family that needed a horse, saying that the only payment he
wanted was a promise to treat the horse well.
It
is said that Johnny Appleseed always treated animals—even wild
animals—exceptionally well. He was a vegetarian, and he was a big believer in not disturbing wild animals. He is even said to have spent some chilly nights rather than accidentally killing insects with his campfire!
Celebrate
by eating apples!
Little
kids might also enjoy these apple-themed crafts and activities.
By
the way...
Some
pictures of Johnny Appleseed show him walking around with a huge bag
of seeds, just indiscriminately tossing hands full of seeds
everywhere he went. (This is what Miss Rumphias is supposed to have
done with lupine seeds—but she is a fictional character!)
In
truth, however, as I mentioned, he carefully planted seeds and
seedlings in nurseries.
No comments:
Post a Comment