Folks Call Me Appleseed John

There are many tall tales about Johnny Appleseed. Most tell of his courage, generosity, and potent green thumb. Many people don't know that the real Johnny Appleseed, John Chapman, was a tale spinner himself.

One story John loved to tell was about the time his half brother, Nathaniel, came to live with him. Nathaniel, who was used to a comfortable life in Massachusetts, was not exactly well suited for rough living in the wilderness of northwestern Pennsylvania with his free-spirited brother. He certainly did not expect to find John dressed in a burlap sack with a mush pot on his head, living in a hollow sycamore tree. John had to bail Nathaniel out of trouble more than once.

This homespun, comical story brings out the compassion, humor, and independent spirit of this quintessentially American hero. Andrew Glass's exquisitely rendered oil paintings capture the dramatic beauty of western Pennsylvania in the early nineteenth century and the pioneer spirit of the people who opened the American West.