SAVANNAH, Ga. (WSAV) — Was he just a myth or a legend taught to us in elementary school for entertainment? No, Johnny Appleseed was a living, breathing man who traversed the United States planting apple trees.
He now has his own National Day on March 11.
Born in 1774 Massachusetts by the name of John Chapman, little is known about his upbringing except that his mother died when he was young and his father fought in the Revolutionary War.
Little is known about his inspiration to begin his journey, but he began an apple tree nursery in Allegheny Valley Pennsylvania in the late 1700s and continued west.
Equipped with a bag of apple seed, a sack for clothes and mostly barefoot, he walked every single day finding good soil to plant and kept moving sleeping outdoors most of the time.
He liked to start nurseries in spots where he thought travelers would settle, to give them a head start, sparking rumors of his impressive wilderness skills and endurance.
At that time in American history, finding safe water to drink was difficult for pioneers so many would use apples as a source of water, and Chapman’s apples served that function.
Those apples would go on to make Applejack and hard cider.
Sources say his belief in Swedenborgian teaches that “the life of religion is to do good,” which drove him to plant and show kindness to all animals and become a vegetarian.
He didn’t plant randomly. As those seeds turned into trees, he would return to those nurseries and sell the trees for profit, becoming very rich by the end of his life.
Chapman is said to have died in 1845, with his legacy of planting apple trees from Pennsylvania to as far as Iowa being cemented in American history and folklore.
Sources:
- Britannica: Was Johnny Appleseed a Real Person?
- Washington Apples: The Story of Johnny Appleseed
- Smithsonian Magazine: The Real Johnny Appleseed Brought Apples—and Booze—to the American Frontier
- The Environmentor: 10 Things You Probably Don’t Know About Johnny Appleseed
