Hunter Kelly was an Irish Catholic boy reared in a Pittsburgh orphan asylum. In the very first years of the nation he met, and became an ardent disciple of, John Chapman—Johnny Appleseed, and differed from him seriously on only two points, the Catholic Church, and hunting. Kelly’s dearest devotion was re-reading St. Augustine’s “City of God,” which he carried always in his hunter’s pouch, by his powder horn. And Johnny Appleseed’s dearest devotion was in reading and re-reading Swedenborg’s “Heaven and Hell,” which he carried in his seed-sack. And Hunter Kelly would shoot deer, over whom Johnny Appleseed would weep. So these two were separated when Kelly’s lust for hunting was on him like the passion of mighty Nimrod. Then he would live through an almost vegetarian period, travelling and planting with John Chapman—Johnny Appleseed, and listening to his great monologues. They began together, exploring the primeval forests near Pittsburgh. Each season they marched further west, returning in the fall to the cider mills of Western Pennsylvania, to beg and sort apple seeds for next spring’s excursion beyond where any other white men fought or explored. Kelly and John Chapman parted at last where is now Fort Wayne in Northern Indiana. They said “goodbye” in great love and devotion, Kelly swearing on St. Augustine’s “City of God” to plant in honor of Johnny Appleseed, a city like an apple tree, with its highest boughs in Heaven, and to begin by sowing there a special breed of apple seeds the saint gave him with his old leather seed-sack for a token. Kelly joined a group of settlers going further west of the same name, but no kin. He entered what was then known as the “Sangamaw” Country with them and lived in their cabin a while. In this region he planted the world’s first orchards of Apple Amaranth trees, from the old leather sack. The first settlers were the Kellys, Matheneys and Elliots. The young sower of mysteries lived alternately in their great log houses, and sat, at the end of his great wolf-hunts, by their open fireplaces. The chief of the local wolf-pack was the Devil, and refused to be slain. At last he took on his true form and came alone to Kelly when he stood meditating among the first sprouts of the famous Apple Amaranth Orchard, and there gave the young fellow words of admiration for his valor. For the Devil is often a true sport. There Kelly made a compact to submit himself to torture for many years if the pioneer city of his vow to Johnny Appleseed might be built here. He and the Devil swore the compact on St. Augustine’s “City of God.”