"John Chapman - A Gentle Hero"
Johnny Appleseed was born in Leominster, Massachusetts on September 26, 1774.
His real name was John Chapman.
His father, Nathaniel Chapman, was one of the Minutemen who fought at Concord on
April 19, 1775, and later in the Continental Army during the Revolutionary War.
John's mother, Elizabeth Symond Chapman, had three children: Elizabeth, who was
born in 1770, John, and Nathaniel Jr., who died shortly after birth in 1776.
John's mother, who was sick from tuberculosis, died just three weeks after her
third child.
Although there is no proof, it is reasonable to assume that Elizabeth's parents
took care of John and his sister while their father was in the Army. Nathaniel
married his second wife, Lucy Cooley of Longmeadow, Massachusetts, in 1780. With
their family of ten children, Nathaniel and Lucy lived in Longmeadow for many
years. Johnny and Elizabeth lived with them for at least part of that time.
There is little authentic information available about Johnny's life with the new
family. However, he did start his westward journey about 1797. "Johnny
Appleseed" was not a scatter of seeds many people believe. He was a practical
nurseryman. He realized that there was a real need and an opportunity for
service in supplying seeds and seedlings.
For the most part, moving ahead of the pioneers, Johnny started many nurseries
throughout the Midwest by planting seeds which he bought from cider mills in
Pennsylvania. In order to assure stability of the newly established homesteads,
the law required each settler to plant fifty apple trees the first year. Because
of the poor transportation that existed in the interior in those days, apples
were a practical necessity in the early settlers diets.
John Chapman, or Johnny Appleseed, owned many tracts of land throughout Ohio and
Indiana. He used this land to plant apple seeds, transplant seedlings and set
out orchards. He sold and gave trees to the pioneer settlers. John Chapman
spread religion as well as apples.
A deeply religious man, John Chapman became a self-appointed missionary for the
Church of the New Jerusalem, a Christian Church based on the Biblical
interpretations of Emanuel Swedenborg, a Swedish scientist and theologian. John
shared his religious tracts and his Bible with the settlers who listened to him.
His love for his neighbor made him accepted as a peacemaker between the Indians
and the settlers.Just short of his seventy-fifth birthday, Johnny Appleseed died
on March 18,1845 in Fort Wayne, Indiana after more than 50 years of travel. His
path through the East and Midwest is today dotted with many monuments to the
memory of this man who fulfilled the Biblical requirements "To Do Justly, To
Love Mercy and To Walk Humbly With His God." Credit to Leominster Historical
Commission
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