Written on 10/08/21
I believe that Hashem wants me to start breaking down the inter-webbed deceptions of almost everything I know, or I guess everything I don’t know. This is a delicate thing, friends. By the way, Hashem means “The Name” in Hebrew, but I’ll call him God from now and then so people can follow along. God… is the OG Johnny Appleseed, you know what I mean? Okay, here’s a digest:
Biography.com says, “John Chapman was an eccentric frontier nurseryman who established orchards throughout the American Midwest. He became the basis of the folk hero Johnny Appleseed, who has been the subject of countless stories, movies and works of art.”
This guy came from an enormous family, a huge thriver of faith, cultivated the land and hearts of many. That’s why so many people paid tribute to the pioneer after he passed by making him a folk hero, but here’s the interesting part…
“The legend of Johnny Appleseed differs from the life of the historical Chapman in several key respects. While Chapman planted strategically for profit, the Johnny Appleseed character sowed seeds at random and without commercial interest. The fact that Chapman's crops were typically used to make alcohol was also excluded from the Johnny Appleseed legend. Despite these discrepancies from the historical record, the Johnny Appleseed character reflects an interest in the frontier settlement during a period of expansion in the far western portion of the continent.”
Can we see how people took a role model and slightly twisted it in folklore? The mystery surrounding his death, go and read about it with the link below, I can’t help but ponder as a 90’s kid if this was maybe a 2pac situation. Did he really die or just turn himself into a profitable beloved character? Because if you’re an eccentric, healthy, wealthy, vegetarian, what would cause him to die at 71 years old, especially without medical records indicating the cause of death? Even Wikipedia doesn’t give me an answer that satisfies. It’s just a hunch.
What’s funny is this isn’t even where I saw this post going when I started looking up Johnny. I wanted to talk about a candle and this little light of mine so look for that blog later I guess because this is still gripping me.
For someone as infamous at Appleseed with property, innovations, family to boot, beloved preacher, why no real placement of his grave? Why so private? Why so many articles insisting they know when... with no detail? So really, nobody really knows anything. Interesting. For all we know, he was an economic entrepreneur and corporate elitist who could’ve faked his own death for insurance payout on his 1,200 acres of edible crops. I don’t know that for fact, just reiterating that nobody really knows.
That’s actually the entire point of these rabbit holes, in reality, I don’t really know anything about anything and the more I research what I thought I knew, it’s concerning that the world around me is being operated by only “some” truth floating around. This is a good segue to - The Apple.
Conclusion,
Truth: Johnny cultivated the land with apple seeds and expanded his wealth with accumulating land which made valuable property at his ripe old age, innovated his insufficient inedible fruit with cider and applejack, preached to the Indigenous, and was loved by those he encountered..
Deception: Chapman not Appleseed. Prosperous through alcohol and sugar, not fresh to market apples.
Hope: He was just a human like the rest of us and proof anything is possible!
References
Biography.com Editors
Original Published Date: April 1, 2014
Last Updated: March 26, 2021
Johnny Appleseed Biography
The Biography.com
https://www.biography.com/historical-figure/johnny-appleseed
Publisher: A&E Television Networks
Wikipedia
This page was last edited on 29 September 2021, at 17:41 (UTC)
Johnny Appleseed
Photo "FANDF"
Taken: 4/13/23 @ 11:01am
Granite Bay, CA
Bloggers Note Added 7/18/23
I was legit upset for about a week about how little I actually knew about Mr. Johnny, but was arrogant enough to think that I knew the whole truth of him from the children's books and cartoon songs.
Just a wreck upset.
Also this...