John “Johnny Appleseed” Chapman (1774-1845) was born in Leominster, Massachusetts to Captain Nathaniel Chapman, a Minuteman at the Battle of Concord and soldier at Bunker Hill and Valley Forge, and his wife, Elizabeth. As a young man he traveled through the Pennsylvania and Ohio frontier, eventually undertaking an apprenticeship as an orchardist under a Mr. Crawford, inspiring his journey of planting apple trees, establishing nurseries and orchards with tart apples that were better used for hard cider and applejack than eating. Fencing his orchards, Chapman left neighbors to tend them and sell trees on shares. Every few years he would return to tend them.

Far from the random sowing of apple seeds his folk hero persona espouses, Chapman planted strategically and established land claims that, upon his death, totaled approximately 1,200 acres, which he left to his sister. He also owned four plots in Indiana and a nursery with over 15,000 trees.

Chapman’s eccentric qualities of a threadbare wardrobe, which often did not include shoes, and frequent use of a tin pan as a hat, lead to the legendary image associated with his character today. Although there are discrepancies between the historical record of John Chapman and the folk hero, he did indeed spread apple seeds and trees into the frontier as the western expansion took place, claiming his place in history as Johnny Appleseed.