Johnny Appleseed

Johnny Appleseed, real name John Chapman (1774?-1845), American pioneer, born in Leominster, Massachusetts. In the early 1800s, Johnny traveled westward planting appleseeds he had collected from cider presses in Pennsylvania. He spent his life planting and tending nurseries of apple seedlings over hundreds of square kilometers in what are now the states of Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois.

Much of what is known about Johnny is mixed with legend. He apparently traveled barefoot, wearing shabby clothing and a tin pot as a hat. Johnny was deeply religious and followed the teachings of the Swedish theologian, Emanuel Swedenborg. He is celebrated in frontier legends as a symbol of westward-moving American civilization, and he figures in literature in such works as In Praise of Johnny Appleseed (1923), by the American poet Vachel Lindsay.