More Johnny Appleseed photos from Cincinnati, Ohio

My blogger friend Pam Seavey Schaffner read my Johnny Appleseed post from August and she send me some photos of this beautiful monument to him from Cincinnati, Ohio.  Pam's blog is called "Digging Down East", and we share a few New England ancestors.  And then blogger Carol Bowen Stevens from "Reflections from the Fence" sent me some photos of Johnny's burial spot in Fort Wayne, Indiana.  Thank you so much, ladies!

John Chapman AKA "Johnny Appleseed" is a distant cousin to me.  He left his hometown of Leominster, Massachusetts and went to the Ohio and Indiana territories as a missionary.   These photos are of the memorial to Johnny at the Spring Grove Cemetery in Cincinnati, Ohio.  He is not buried here, but was buried in Fort Wayne, Indiana. 

JOHNNY APPLESEED

JOHN CHAPMAN SEPTEMBER 26, 1774 - MARCH 18, 1845

JOHNNY APPLESEED, FIGURE OF LEGEND, WAS A SWEDENBORGIAN

MISSIONARY TO THE OHIO AN DINDIAN FRONTIER.  SAINTLY

IN HIS DAILY LIFE, HE LOVED LIFE IN ALL ITS FORMS AND

HAD A JOYOUS WILL TO HELP THE EARTH YIELD ITS FRUITS.

BIBLE IN HAND AND SACK OF SEEDS SWINGING FROM HIS SHOULDER

HE PLANTED MANY APPLE ORCHARDS THAT LIVE TODAY IN THIS

NATION.  MAY HE BE REMEMBERED IN FACT AS WELL AS IN

LEGEND FOR HIS GODLINESS AND GOODNESS.

These next photos are from Fort Wayne, and are of the supposed burial spot for John Chapman "Johnny Appleseed". 

Johnny Appleseed

1774 - 1845

Johnny Appleseed, legendary planter of orchards

across Ohio, Indiana and Illinois, was a real

person named John Chapman.  He was a friend to

all God's creatures and a missionary for the 

Swedenborgian religion, a Christian denomination.

He was also a smart businessman.  Moving ahead

of the waves of westward bound settlers, he

purchased property, carefully sowed appleseeds,

and had seedlings available when settlers arrived.

His seedlings were valuable because apples were

highly nutritious and orchards were a symbol of 

permanency.  He sold trees for 3 cents if you

planted them and 6.5 cents if he planted them for 

you.  Johnny was also very generous, often saying

"pay me when you can."  

The amber water flask Johnny gave to a little girl on her birthday

gives us a clue to his success and fame.  Material things meant

little to Johnny except when they could make a child smile, give

a pioneer family the means to improve their diet or increase 

their cash income from apples or apple jack.  Cider and apple

jack were pioneer currancy.

Documents like this receipt

indicate that Johnny lived

and worked here from the 

1830s until his death in 1845.

Johnny lived a life of service in harmony with nature that impressed Native Americans, as

well as his fellow Americans.  He was a proud patriot.  His thoughts were of God and the

afterlife and his greeting was often, "I have good news from heaven!"  He must have been a

good salesman.  People loved him.

The water flask is on display at The History Center, 302 East Berry Street. 

JOHN CHAPMAN

"JOHNNY APPLESEED"

DIED 1845

----------

ERECTED BY

INDIANA

HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY

"JOHNY

APPLESEED"

JOHN CHAPMAN

HE LIVED FOR OTHERS

HOLY BIBLE

1774 - 1845

IN FOND MEMORY OF

JOHN CHAPMAN, ENDEARINGLY KNOWN AS "JOHNNY APPLESEED"

THESE GRAVESITE IMPROVEMENTS WERE PROVIDED BY

THE MEN'S GARDEN CLUBS OF AMERICA

AND

THE JOHNNY APPLESEED NATIONAL MEMORIAL FOUNDATION, INC.

SEPTEMBER 25, 1965

My blog post about Johnny Appleseed's birthplace in Leominster, Massachusetts

http://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2013/08/on-trail-of-johnny-appleseed.html 

Pam Seavey Schaffner's blog   http://www.diggingdowneast.blogspot.com/

Carol A. Bowen Steven's blog http://reflectionsfromthefence.blogspot.com/

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The URL for this post is

http://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2014/01/more-johnny-appleseed-photos-from.html 

Copyright (c) 2014, Heather Wilkinson Rojo

The Massachusetts / Ohio Connection

My mom grew up in the small town of Hamilton, Massachusetts.  It is a quiet place in the middle of Essex County, with old colonial houses.  One of its biggest claims to fame is the wagon train formed by Manasseh Cutler, which took the first settlers to Ohio in 1787.  She often pointed out this historical marker to me, but I couldn't imagine Western style pioneers in Hamilton when I was a little girl.  

THE COVERED WAGON

On December 3, 1787, the

first covered wagon to leave

Massachusetts for the west

set forth from this spot

arriving the next spring in 

the Northwest Territory and 

founding Marietta, Ohio.

------------------

Massachusetts Bay Colony

Tercentenary Commission

The Congregational Church of Hamilton, Massachusetts

On the corner of Cutler Road and Bay Road. 

Reverend Manasseh Cutler (1742 – 1823) was born in Killingly, Connecticut.  He graduated from Yale and taught school and dabbled as a lawyer before becoming the pastor of the church in “The Hamlet” parish of Ipswich, Massachusetts (now known as the town of Hamilton).   He became interested in the settlement of the Northwest Territory (Ohio) in 1786 and was an agent of the Ohio Company of Associates,  which also included General Rufus Putnam, Benjamin Tupper, Winthrop Sargent, James Mitchell Varnum , Richard Platt and Samuel Holden Parsons.  

Manasseh Cutler is the husband of my 3^rd cousin, 6 generations removed.  His wife was Mary Balch, born 16 November 1740 in Dedham, Massachusetts.   Our common ancestors are Benjamin Balch (1628 - after 1715) and Sarah Gardner (1627 – 1686) of Beverly, Massachusetts.  In the Ohio Company, Brigadier General Rufus Putnam is my 2^nd cousin, 6 generations removed.  Our common ancestors are John Putnam (1570/80 – 1662) and Priscilla Gould (b. abt. 1585) of Salem, Massachusetts.

The settlers who left Hamilton, Massachusetts reached Marietta, Ohio in the spring of 1788.  It was the first permanent settlement of Europeans in the present state of Ohio.  The settlers chartered their first Congregational church in 1796, and built the first building in 1807.   The documents and papers of the Ohio Company of Associates are held in the archives at Marietta College in Ohio. 

Departure on December 3, 1787, from Manasseh Cutler’s parsonage in "The Hamlet” parish of Ipswich, Massachusetts, of the first of two groups comprising the pioneers to the Ohio Country and the Northwest Territory. This image is from the book by Edwin Erle Sparks, The United States of America, Part 1, published in 1904.

Here is a list of the 48 pioneers all from New England (found at Wikipedia on a list carved onto a monument at Front Street in Marietta, Ohio).  Are you a descendant or relative of these families?  I can see several that are surnames from my family tree (Putnam, Munroe, Flint, Gardner).  General Rufus Putnam was a 2nd cousin, six generations removed.  So was Hezekiah Flint, who married Sally Putnam cousin to General Putnam.

General Rufus Putnam, Colonel Return J. Meigs, Sr. (arrived several days later than the others), Colonel Ebenezer Sproat, Major Anslem Tupper, Surveyor John Mathews, Major Haffield White, Captain Ezekiel Cooper, Captain Daniel Davis, Captain Jonathan Devoll (Devol), Captain Peregrine Foster, Captain William Gray, Captain Josiah Munroe (Munro), Captain Jethro Putnam, Jabez Barlow, Daniel Bushnell, Phineas Coburn, Ebenezer Corey (Cory), Samuel Cushing, Jarvis (Jervis) Cutler, Israel Danton, Jonas Davis, Allen Devoll, Gilbert Devoll, Jr., Isaac Dodge, Oliver Dodge, Samuel Felshaw, Hezekiah Flint, Hezekiah Flint, Jr., John Gardner, Benjamin Griswold, Elizur (Elisur) Kirtland, Theophilus Leonard (Learned), Joseph Lincoln, Simeon Martin, Henry Maxom, William Maxom (Mason), William Miller, William Moulton, Edmond (Edmund) Moulton, Amos Porter, Jr., Allen Putnam, Benjamin Shaw, Earl Sproat, David Wallace (Wallis), Joseph Wells, Josiah White, Peletiah White, Josiah Whitridge.

The website of the First Congregational Church, Hamilton, Massachusetts http://www.fcchamilton.org/ 

Wikipedia Ohio Company of Associates http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ohio_Company_of_Associates  

Barbara Poole's blog "Life from the Roots" has two blog posts about Manasseh Cutler, her 4th great grandfather, at these links:

http://lifefromtheroots.blogspot.com/2010/01/tombstone-tuesday-manassah-cutler-and.html  

http://lifefromtheroots.blogspot.com/2010/01/dr-manasseh-cutler-minister-doctor.html   

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Heather Wilkinson Rojo, "The Massachusetts / Ohio Connection", Nutfield Genealogy, posted April 15, 2013, ( https://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2013/04/the-massachusetts-ohio-connection.html: accessed [access date]).