Chapman, John

Johnny Appleseed, byname of John Chapman, (born September 26, 1774, Leominster, Massachusetts—died March 18Fort Wayne, Indiana, U.S.), American missionary nurseryman of the North American frontier who helped prepare the way for 19th-century pioneers by supplying apple-tree nursery stock throughout the Midwest.

Although the legendary character of “Johnny Appleseed” is known chiefly through fiction, John Chapman was a genuine and dedicated professional nurseryman who expected to make a profit from the sale of his seedlings. Around 1800 he started collecting apple seeds from cider presses in western Pennsylvania and soon began his long trek westward, planting a series of apple nurseries from the Alleghenies to central Ohio and beyond. He sold or gave away thousands of seedlings to pioneers, whose acres of productive apple orchards became a living memorial to Chapman’s missionary zeal.

A variety of distinctive characteristics combined to create the “Johnny Appleseed” myth of the primitive natural man: his cheerful generous nature, his affinity for the wilderness, his gentleness with animals, his devotion to the Bible, his knowledge of medicinal herbs, his harmony with the Native Americans, and above all his eccentric appearance—flowing hair under an inverted mush pan, bare feet, ragged trousers, and an old coffee sack over his shoulders with holes cut out for arms.

John Chapman, owner of 1,200 acres of planted land, died from exposure in 1845, but the legend of “Johnny Appleseed” lives on in numerous literary works.