SchoolTime Performance Series 2013-14 Hank Fincken Not “Johnny” If You Please STUDY GUIDE Written by Hank Fincken Additional Activities, Edited & Designed by Kathleen Riemenschneider CINCINNATI ARTS ASSOCIATION, EDUCATION/COMMUNITY RELATIONS, 650 WALNUT ST., CINCINNATI, OH 45202 PHONE 513-977-4116, FAX 513-977-4150 WWW.CINCINNATIARTS.ORG, [email protected] JOHN CHAPMAN/JOHNNY APPLESEED John Chapman was a real person but the facts about his life are few and far between. Every author who has written a biography about John has been forced to invent facts or trust legends which cannot be verified. Even in this earliest known drawing (1855), it is hard to separate John the man from Johnny the legend. How come a man who never worried about his appearance is clean shaven? How accurate can this sketch be since John had died ten years before it was drawn? Where is the pot that all kids are sure John wore? As I wrote my play, I felt like a painter who has been asked to draw a portrait after having seen only the man’s shadow. If an accurate historical rendering is impossible, what could I hope to accomplish? I think a fifth grader said it best in a letter she sent me after having seen the play. Dear Hank, Thanks for going to our school. John Appleseed has always been my favorite. When I grow up I want to be a teacher. When I become a teacher I will tell them all about John Appleseed and the day you came to our school. Thanks, Mary Noble JOHN CHAPMAN: TIME LINE 1774: John was born September 26, 1774 in Leominster, Massachusetts. 1776: John’s Mother Elizabeth (formerly Simons) dies July 18, 1776. 1780: Nathaniel Chapman (John’s father) remarries Lucy Cooley July 24, 1780. The family settles in Long Meadow, Massachusetts. Altogether, the new Chapman family will have ten children. 1796: First confirmed report of John Chapman and his apple tree business has him in Warren, Pennsylvania. Undocumented accounts say he was planting trees in western New York in 1792. Another source says he began planting his seeds in Virginia. 1803: John plants first apple seeds in Ohio (some say sooner); by tradition in Carrollton. 1804: John moves his operations full time into Ohio. 1806: Nathaniel Chapman dies in southeast Ohio. 1809: Map of Mt. Vernon shows two plots owned by John Chapman. 1812: John makes historical ride/run to save the people of Mansfield from hostile Indians. 1816: John gives July 4 speech in Mansfield, Ohio. 1817: First printed reference of John Chapman as a member of The New Church or the Church of New Jerusalem, January 1817 (England) 1816/1822: Although first nicknamed Appleseed John (date unknown), the first printed reference to John Appleseed is November, 1822. Some ledgers mention his name as early as 1816. 1828-1834: Sometime between 1828 and 1834, John moves his operations into Indiana. 1845: John’s death reported March 18, 1845 by Fort Wayne Sentinel. 1871: Article: “Johnny Appleseed; A Pioneer Hero” published in Harper’s New Monthly Magazine. November 1871. John becomes a national hero. 1871 to present: Stories old and new emerge about John Chapman Cincinnati Arts Association 2 Not “Johnny” If You Please Johnny Appleseed: PLANTING MORE THAN JUST SEEDS BY HANK FINCKEN Ohio has as much claim to Johnny Appleseed as any state in the union. He arrived shortly after the start of the nineteenth century and called it home even after he had moved most of his work to Indiana. Without a doubt, his most fruitful years (literally) were planting seeds and selling apple seedlings throughout the Ohio frontier. Stories of his life here have been passed down for generations. These family histories provide clues of what the man must have been like, but few can be documented and many are contradictory. Some are based on fact; others on wishful thinking, but all are treasured heirlooms—the source of family, county, and state pride. That is why it is almost impossible to capture the “real” John Chapman and why my interpretation can never satisfy everyone. Since the stories told were heard in youth, the image created in the mind seems almost sacred. How dare I portray him differently from what one has known since childhood? Each of us clings to something unique and special about the man or the man we wish he was. He is the devoted cleric, jolly storyteller, simpleminded peddler, eccentric handyman, and homeless wanderer. He is all this and maybe something more. In the fall of 1982, teachers in Muncie, Indiana asked me to create a program about Johnny Appleseed. It sounded simple enough. I anticipated three months of preparation and a week or two for revision. But I was wrong. Thirty years and more than 1,300 performances later, I still wonder who John Chapman was. The difficulties began immediately. In my research at Ball State University library, I found very little concrete information about John Chapman the man and too many unsubstantiated anecdotes about Johnny Appleseed the legend. The two were one, separate and inseparable at the same time. John Chapman was a preacher who sold apple seedlings to help support his ministry. Johnny Appleseed tosses apple seeds everywhere, talks with rabbits, sleeps with bears, and wears a mush pot on his head. I first saw the dilemma of writing the script as John versus Johnny. Today I see it as: what do I owe the memory of John Chapman and what do I owe the audience, who prefers John’s friendly incarnation, Johnny? For example, people want to know where, when, and why John/Johnny planted his first seeds. Although no one knows for sure, the earliest reliable sighting of John, documented in the memoirs of Judge Lansing Wetmore, is in western Pennsylvania in 1797. John’s Swedenborgian faith would illustrate the connection between planting apple seeds and planting spiritual seeds. It is in the wilderness, Swedenborgians believe, that the physical and spiritual worlds blend into each other. That is an excellent reason for John Chapman to begin his work, but it is not good enough for those who love Johnny. Acquaintances, county history books, modern biographers, and authors of children’s books give an assortment of reasons why Johnny headed west to plant his first seeds. These include: 1) he got kicked in the head by a horse and lost his common sense; 2) he got caught in a severe snowstorm that ultimately affected his judgment; 3) his fiancée’s father disliked Johnny so much he moved west to Cincinnati Arts Association 3 Not “Johnny” If You Please prevent the wedding and Johnny was forever after in pursuit; and 4) grief caused by his bride’s death on the night of their marriage prevented him from ever settling down. All of these explanations reveal more about the people who tell them than they do about John/ Johnny. His lifestyle was so unusual (and illogical for profit-oriented Americans) that contemporaries needed to create appropriate motivation. I trusted none of these reasons, as charming as they might be. They are common to many folk characters, and there was no way to verify sources. Of course, John’s “real” reasons for setting out may have been much more humdrum than religious zeal or mental deficiency. John’s mother died when he was two. His father remarried and moved to Longmeadow, Massachusetts. Maybe his ten half brothers and sisters created such a workload and chaotic home life that the wilds of the frontier seemed tame by comparison. Some of John’s background can be documented. Thanks to the research of Florence Wheeler, we know he was born on 26 September 1774 in Leominster, Massachusetts, the second child of Nathaniel and Elizabeth Chapman. We also know that Nathaniel served in The Revolutionary War, and Elizabeth wrote a surviving letter shortly before her own death in 1776. There are deeds, ledger entries, and court documents that prove John Chapman worked throughout Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, (West) Virginia, and Indiana. There are also reminisces that have John in New York, Missouri, Nebraska, and Kentucky. Added together, John seems more ethereal than real. If only there was some documented moment from John’s life with witnesses that could put color into his saintly cheeks. But there was. To save residents holed up in a blockhouse from Indian attack in August 1812, John Chapman made a 30-mile trip from Mansfield to Mount Vernon. Witnesses make the journey practically a documentary. Except once again contradictions reign, and the ornate quality of the language attributed to John during this emergency belies its authenticity. These quotations are as close as anyone can come to a primary source, but their accuracy depends on the articulate clarity of the excited speaker and the infallible ear of the frightened listener remembered years later. Adding to this doubt, accounts vary as to whether John rode a horse or ran all the way barefoot. The soldiers who returned to Mansfield eliminated the Indian danger, but they also murdered several local individuals from Greentown, an Indian village that had long been friendly with the Mansfield community. This kind of situation should help me to separate the man from myth. John/Johnny had saved the town, but his efforts caused the death of innocent people, who reportedly were his friends. So, what was his response? Was he torn with guilt for what had happened to his Indian brothers, or content that his hard ride/run had saved the lives of his neighbors? What does John say? What do his neighbors say he said? Unfortunately, nothing was recorded.