Saving a living legend

Insight on the News, Sept 14, 1998 by Jennifer Harper

The last surviving cuttings from a tree planted by Johnny Appleseed have been granted onto healthy stock, providing Future generations with a true taste of American history.

A most historic apple has been snatched from the jaws of obscurity, thanks to a band of patient but determined nurserymen and historians who rescued the last surviving branches of the last surviving Johnny Appleseed tree. The group had the branches grafted onto a healthy Tennessee apple tree in August.

"This still means something to most Americans, no matter how cynical our country gets" says Sheila Pursley of American Forests' Famous & Historic Trees, a nonprofit conservation group in Florida that organized the project. "It's sentiment, but it's something more. People will plant a tree to honor the birth of a child or to mark a historic event. In this case, these last two branches are history."

The dark, nubby cuttings, carefully preserved, were sliced from an ancient Albemarle Pippin tree on the old Harvey Farm near Nova, Ohio, before it was blown down in a windstorm two years ago. The branches are as rare as they are authentic: Historians have confirmed the old tree was planted by John Chapman, the slight, winnowed wanderer who spent 40 years planting apple seeds and tree saplings in the early 19th century.

The precious branches got their new lease on life through a ceremonious "t-budding." Experts grafted them onto clefts on host trees at Hollydale Nurseries in Pelham, Tenn. Branches above the graft will be sheared, forcing the tree to concentrate growing energies onto the new grafts.

Bible-toting Johnny Appleseed, who walked barefoot and wore a tin pot as a hat, once dreamed that the streets of Heaven were shaded with apple trees. The dream became his vision. Carrying seeds and saplings, he spent four decades ensuring that settlers had apples to eat, including his personal favorite, the "Rambo" apple.

His efforts secured his place in American history. Vachel Lindsay wrote a three-part epic poem based on his life; the Postal Service issued a 5-cent stamp in his honor; numerous schools, roads, hotels, craft fairs and shopping malls bear his name.

In addition to me new apple tree, the 123-year-old American Forests group tracks and cares for the whispering willows and towering oaks that are the sentinels of the U.S. landscape. They gather seeds and clippings and offer the carefully nurtured historic offspring to the public for gardens.

"We watch over an oak which George Washington planted in 1775 and a Robert E. Lee sweet gum from the Civil War era," says Pursley. "We've got the Moon Sycamore down in Florida, which was grown from seeds that went up on Apollo 14.' The group nurtures trees at the Alamo in San Antonio and Independence Hail in Philadelphia, as well as the William Jefferson Clinton pink dogwood in Little Rock.

The Johnny Appleseed branches, however, are so special that American Forests calls them "Johnny Appleseed's legacy" Next April, the tree could offer apples that look and taste like those of 150 years ago. Eventually, the tree's offspring will be available to orchards, arboretums and anyone who favors America's more delectable history.

Historic apple varieties such as the Royal Russet, Leather Coat, Cat-Heat and Pearmain are mostly the stuff of legend these days. Since 1900, about 7,000 apple varieties across the country have dwindled to fewer than 1,000.