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Working out in our vegetable garden is something my wife and I do a lot. We enjoy watching our garden grow and taking advantage of the fruits of our labor. There is nothing like picking a pepper or tomato that is home grown and enjoying it. Something about it just tastes better. One of my many memories of my grandparents is spending time with them in their garden tending to their plants. Sometimes I would be passing my grandparents’ porch, and my grandmother would have a bowl of beans to prepare. We would spend time snapping the ends off green beans while catching up and having a nice time. Doing things like this plants a lot of love in a family. I hope my children have similar memories of time spent with family in the garden.
This year we planted two apple trees in our yard in addition to the garden, and we are hoping that in time these trees will grow to provide some good apples for us. One is a Granny Smith apple, and the other is a tree that has many different varieties on one trunk that includes Gala, Fuji, Honeycrisp and Red Delicious-- each on their own branch. Looking back at an article I wrote from July 2022, I am reminded that our most well-known apple tree grower in our local folklore passed by our area time and again.
When you think about apples of the past, inevitably your thoughts wander to the most famous apple planter of all time, Johnny Appleseed. His real name was John Chapman, and like others of his status as a folk hero, legends and myths about his adventures abounded even during his lifetime. Johnny was in Jefferson County more than a few times during his travels. John Chapman was born in 1774 in Massachusetts, and according to Joseph Doyle in his 1910 tome “The History of Steubenville and Jefferson County,” came west to our area in 1801. His first stop was Wellsburg, and he crossed the river into Ohio at George’s Run just four miles south of Steubenville. It was here, as Doyle relates, that he first planted his apple seeds in Ohio. I think it is the common misconception that Johnny just planted apple seeds randomly, but according to numerous sources on the matter, Johnny would plant little batches of seeds, fence the area rustically and return periodically over many years tending to the trees. Eventually he would purchase the land that the trees were planted on and sell the trees on shares to the new settlers. In that way he was a successful businessman.
Despite his success, Johnny always wore worn out clothing, no shoes and often wore a pot on his head as a hat. It seems that this was a personal choice rather than a necessity. Chapman was deeply religious and followed the Swedenborgian Doctrine, and as he went on his travels, he would preach that viewpoint when he had the chance. In 1806, John was seen traveling down the Ohio River at Steubenville between two canoes that were lashed together with a large sack of apple seeds on board. The Native Americans, according to legend, regarded Chapman as a medicine man who was touched by the great spirit. John spent a good deal of time in our area but finally made it to Indiana where he passed away in 1847, apparently a very wealthy man. His total land holdings at the time of his death were more than 1,200 acres.
Chapman never settled in this area. According to Doyle, he was persuaded to stay near Steubenville, but he remarked “They are starting one (a nursery) up the river on the Virginia side (Nessley’s) and talk of improving apples by grafting. They cannot improve the apples in that way -- that is only a device of man, and it is wicked to cut up trees in that way. The correct method is to select good seeds and plant them in good ground, and God only can improve the apples.”
Jacob Nessley settled in what is today Hancock County across from Yellow Creek and began to graft apples in the late 18th century. Doyle explains that Nessley had about 1,800 acres and cultivated one half of that for orchards. He grew Gate, Dominie, Rambo, Early Pennock, Golden Pippin and Golden Bell, among others. Mostly, the apples were converted into brandy and made the journey to markets in New Orleans, a trade lasting, as Doyle recounted, for more than 30 years.
In Jefferson County, the most successful nursery of the early 19th century was operated by Samuel Wood from Smithfield. He immigrated from Maryland in 1814 and started his nursery in 1816. His business grew and he sent away for trees from the eastern states. According to a report he wrote to the Ohio Promological Society in 1859, “after the trees in my nursery commenced bearing, I could not furnish trees fast enough for the demand.” According to J. A. Caldwell in his 1880 book, “History of Belmont and Jefferson Counties,” Wood’s nursery increased “from 10 to 12 kinds of apples which he first cultivated, the number increased to over 100, including apples, peaches, plums and pears … In a few more years his supply exceeded the home demand, and he sought a market for the surplus trees by shipping them down the Ohio River.”
Samuel Wood was at the forefront of pomology in Eastern Ohio.
The apples grown here in the 1880s described by Caldwell were Zane’s Greening, originating on Wheeling Island around 1800; Western Spy, from the farm of John Mansfield in Wayne Township in Jefferson County, a great cooking and keeping apple, it was introduced by Samuel Wood; Ohio Redstreak, from the farm of James Mansfield of Wayne Township in Jefferson County, also introduced by Samuel Wood in 1830; Bentley Sweet, a very late keeper, originally found on the farm of Solomon Bentley of Belmont County; Culp, from Richmond in Jefferson County, found on the farm of George Culp, great for cooking and dessert, introduced by Samuel Wood; and the Belmont Apple, also know as the Gate apple, a very popular apple in the 19th century.
As one can see, apples played a large role in our area in the 19th century. I hope that my apple trees can grow to provide produce for my family in years to come. Those memories of working your land in a garden or picking apples from your own tree are ones that stay with you for a life time. Happy planting!
(Zuros is the executive director of Historic Fort Steuben)