In talking about food on the frontier during the past few chapters of this tale, it’s time to turn the attention to apples. Apples were a staple of life among the pioneers who flocked into the Ohio Country in the opening years of the 1800s from the eastern regions of America. They left behind well cultivated orchards which produced a fruit that represented a major part of their diets, being a key ingredient in a multitude of recipes.
But there were no apple orchards — or domestic apple trees — growing in the vast wilderness they encountered beyond the Appalachian and Allegheny mountains. What apple trees would eventually become available in the region were due to the foresight of a single individual named John Chapman. Chapman, whose exploits across the Ohio Country were the stuff legends were made of, came to eventually be branded forever with the moniker “Johnny Appleseed.”
The business of apples. While the seemingly endless mythology surrounding this flamboyant individual has been rehashed in books, television programs, movies and even Disney cartoons, the real story of Chapman is probably somewhat less colorful. But it figures significantly in the success of ensuing settlement in this area of the country. Regardless of the state of his odd attire, his improbable good rapport with the Indian tribes or his reputed godlike relationship with all of nature’s creatures, the bottom line was that John Chapman was a businessman with a successful business plan. Chapman was in the tree nursery business — apple trees in particular.
Chapman foresaw the great tide of settlement that would wash over the mountains and into vast land between the rivers beyond and wanted to position himself to capitalize on the many economic opportunities this would present, so Chapman began to develop nurseries for apple trees, primarily across what is now northeastern Ohio. He would collect apple seeds from cider presses in western Pennsylvania and plant them on such parcels of land as might be borrowed, bought or leased, often fencing them to protect the seedlings from predators. He would work his way around the region, planting apple trees and returning to his nurseries to tend them. As he did so, he acquired a vast amount of knowledge about the land and its resources, knowledge that he was able to parlay to his financial advantage as well. For a price, Chapman would share his insights regarding choice parcels of land with the principals working to develop early communities out of the wilderness. There are documented reports of Chapman sitting on the porch of the resplendent Federal mansion of Gen. Reasin Beall in Wooster, Ohio (Chapman probably was never invited inside.), talking with Beall about especially attractive lands that might be suitable for development and being paid for the information.
Eventually, Chapman himself owned more than 1,200 acres of land that his various nurseries were located on. As the land around those nurseries became settled, he was undoubtedly able to sell those holdings at a nice profit.
But Chapman’s apparent real love was selling his apple trees to settlers so that they could immediately begin planting orchards on lands that they cleared. And in that endeavor, he was highly successful. Most plat maps of settlements depicted in atlases of the mid-1800s show the boundaries of properties with the locations of barns, houses, outbuildings and orchards also illustrated.
Grafting
The apple trees that Chapman sold were far different from those found in today’s orchards, with the fruit being much smaller and reportedly more sour. To improve the quality of the fruit, many farmers began the process of grafting — a practice that Chapman himself reportedly disliked.
In grafting, a scion (branch) from one variety of apple tree is attached to the rootstock (trunk) of another to see what kind of apple might grow from the pairing. To perform this task, most farmers seem to have had a tool called a grafting froe (not to be confused with a shingle splitting froe). The grafting froe had two blades. A large, wide, often curving blade was used to cut off the scion which would be grafted, while the second much smaller and narrower blade would be used to open a pocket in the bark of the rootstock to accept the scion. Once the scion was slid into the slot, it was tightly bound with cord and the entire graft was sealed in a coating of wax to protect it from infection or bugs.
Interestingly, most grafting froes that turn up nowadays were made from recycled metal, primarily files or rasps. When these latter tools became worn out they were taken to the local blacksmith for reshaping into a new and useful tool. Files that were recycled in this manner are easily spotted by remaining hash marks in the metal.
The penchant for grafting proved pervasive with more and more farmers trying their hand at it. For many pioneers it was as close to being a hobby as they could make time for. As a result, numerous improved varieties of apples were developed. While Pennsylvania was reputed to have had 100 varieties of apples, across the Ohio country it is estimated there were more than 600 varieties developed, with 50 varieties being in Ohio. Eventually, across the U.S. there were said to be 2,500 varieties of apples, with 7,500 varieties known worldwide. That’s a whole lot of grafting!
