Holub - Who Was Johnny Appleseed?

By Joan Holub

Illustrated by Anna DiVito

Grosset & Dunlap

For Liz and Lamar ColeJ.H.

For PearlA.D.

GROSSET & DUNLAP

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Text copyright 2005 by Joan Holub. Illustrations copyright 2005 by Anna DiVito. Cover illustration copyright 2005 by Nancy Harrison. All rights reserved. Published by Grosset & Dunlap, a division of Penguin Young Readers Group, 345 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014. GROSSET & DUNLAP is a trademark of Penguin Group (USA) Inc. Printed in the U.S.A.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Holub, Joan.

Who was Johnny Appleseed? / by Joan Holub; illustrated by Anna DiVito.

p. cm. (Who was?)

Includes bibliographical references.

ISBN: 978-1-101-63991-7

1. Appleseed, Johnny, 17741845. 2. Apple growersUnited StatesBiography. 3. Frontier and pioneer lifeMiddle West. I. DiVito, Anna, ill. II. Title. III. Series.

SB63.C46H66 2005

634.11092dc22

2005003383

20 19 18 17 16 15 14

Johnny Appleseeds real name was John Chapman. He earned his nickname by planting thousands of apple seeds in Americas Midwest. For this, he became a legend during his own lifetime.

Johnny Appleseed was best known as an apple lover, but he was many other things as well.

He was a peacemaker who tried to calm the trouble between settlers and Native Americans.

He was a religious person who preached to pioneers.

He was a friend to animals and helped forest creatures whenever he could.

He was an eccentric person. That means he did things differently from most other people.

He lived alone in the wilderness. He never settled in one place. And he dressed oddlyreally oddly. Settlers always remembered meeting him because he stood out.

He was a storyteller. When Johnny visited pioneer cabins to sell apple seedlings, he talked about his adventures on the frontier. The settlers told his stories to other settlers. Over time, some of his stories were exaggerated or changed. By now, its sometimes hard to separate the tales from the truth.

What is the real story behind the legend of Johnny Appleseed?

It was September 26, 1774, in Leominster, Massachusetts. Colonists were just beginning to pick newly ripened apples from their trees. Nathaniel and Elizabeth Chapman were celebrating. Their first son was born that day. They named him John, but someday he would be better known as Johnny Appleseed.

Johnny also had a sister named Elizabeth. She was four years old. The family was poor and lived in a small house they rented from relatives. Though Johnnys father did farming and carpentry work, he wasnt very successful.

THE BOSTON TEA PARTY

TODAY, AMERICANS DRINK MORE COFFEE THAN TEA. BUT IN JOHNNY APPLESEEDS TIME, IT WAS THE OTHER WAY AROUND. TEA WAS MORE POPULAR. SO THE COLONISTS GOT REALLY MAD WHEN THE ENGLISH GOVERNMENT PUT A TAX ON IT.

BEGINNING IN 1765, ENGLAND SAID COLONISTS HAD TO PAY TAXES ON IMPORTED GLASS, LEAD, PAINT, PAPER, AND TEA. COLONISTS DIDNT WANT TO BE TAXED IF THEY WERENT ALLOWED ANY SAY IN MAKING LAWS. THEY DID EVERYTHING THEY COULD TO AVOID PAYING THE TAXES. ON DECEMBER 16, 1773, A GROUP OF COLONISTS DECIDED TO PROTEST THE TEA TAX IN A BIG WAY. DISGUISED AS MEMBERS OF THE MOHAWK TRIBE, THEY SNEAKED ONTO SHIPS DOCKED IN BOSTON HARBOR. THE SHIPS WERE LOADED WITH 342 BOXES OF TEA. MANY COLONISTS LIKED TEA SO MUCH THAT THEY HAD A HARD TIME DOING WITHOUT IT. TO STOP ANYONE FROM BUYING THE TEA, THESE MEN TOSSED IT OVERBOARD.

THIS PROTEST BECAME KNOWN AS THE BOSTON TEA PARTY. IT HAPPENED JUST FIFTY MILES FROM LEOMINSTER, WHERE JOHNNY WAS BORN NINE MONTHS LATER.

Shortly before Johnny was born, his father had taken on yet a third job. At that time, many colonists wanted to go to war against England. They hoped to break away and form a new country. Like many of these patriots, Johnnys father became a minuteman. Minutemen promised to defend the thirteen colonies from English troops at a minutes notice.

When Johnny was less than a year old, his father was called to duty. He helped fight the English at the battle of Bunker Hill.

By the spring of 1776, his father was marching with George Washingtons army. That July, the Declaration of Independence was signed. The colonies were fighting for independence from England in the Revolutionary War.

That same year, before Johnnys second birthday, something terrible happened. His mother and newborn brother died. Johnny was probably too young to understand what was going on, but he no doubt missed his mother. Since their father was still in the army, Johnny and his sister went to live with their grandparents.