Why is johnny appleseed a tall tale

He was born in Leominster, Massachusetts in His dream was to produce so many apples that no one would ever go hungry. His adventures began in , when John was eighteen years old. He and his eleven-year-old half brother, Nathaniel, headed west, following the steady stream of immigrants.

In his early twenties, John began traveling alone, which is how he spent the rest of his life. Nathaniel stayed behind to farm with their father, who had also immigrated west. John continued moving west to Pennsylvania. From there he traveled into the Ohio Valley country and later, Indiana. He kept ahead of the settlements and each year planted apple seeds farther west. He always carried a leather bag filled with apple seeds he collected for free from cider mills.

Legend says he was constantly planting them in open places in the forests, along the roadways and by the streams. However, research suggests he created numerous nurseries by carefully selecting the perfect planting spot, fencing it in with fallen trees and logs, bushes and vines, sowing the seeds and returning at regular intervals to repair the fence, tend the ground and sell the trees.

Over the years, his frequent visits to the settlements were looked forward to and no cabin door was ever closed to him. To the men and women he was a news carrier; to the children he was a friend. Moral reasoning in the story focuses on concern for relationships and concern for law and order. The theme of the story is Give generously and without discriminating, even if the gift is simple. Johnny Appleseed is a folk hero based on frontier nurseryman John Chapman, who established orchards throughout the American Midwest.

He was a small wiry man with thin lips, dark face and long, dark hair. His eyes were black and sharp and piercing. He had a pleasant smile, but his face was usually sober, and as to his dress, it was as fantastic and dilapidated as you could imagine.

But the Indians thought he was a saint, for he saved the lives of babies and warriors using his special knowledge of herbs. Another thing he loved were animals. His best companion was Brother Wolf, a hurt wolf he found on his journey. According to his biography, Appleseed was a firm believer in animal rights and denounced cruelty to any living beings, including insects. He was a vegetarian and perhaps one of the first to be motivated by ethical reasons to refrain from eating meat.

But this made them ideal for making hard cider and applejack. This was a far more valuable crop than edible apples. Up until Prohibition, an apple grown in America was far less likely to be eaten than to wind up in a barrel of cider.

In rural areas cider took the place of not only wine and beer but of coffee and tea, juice, and even water. Chapman was often noted for his threadbare clothes and preference for bare feet. But these eccentricities may have been offerings to his faith, the Church of Swedenborg also known as The New Church , a Christian denomination established in The second part of his signature look—that sack of apple seeds—was most definitely accurate. Because the Church forbade its members harming God's creation, Chapman became a vocal animal rights activist and vegetarian.

He also refused to use grafting to create his orchards, believing that this growing technique physically hurt the source plants. So, he carried a large sack of seeds everywhere he traveled.

However, his oft-depicted tin pot hat has not been authenticated. Another strongly held belief of Chapman's was that marriage was not for him. As the Church of Swedenborg promoted abstinence for those unmarried, Chapman remained chaste his entire life, leaving no children to inherit his lands or curtail the tall tales that sprouted like his trees did. Though some say Chapman had picked up his nickname by , it wasn't until after his death in that the legend of Johnny Appleseed really took off.