Drawing of Johnny Appleseed. © By H. S. Knapp [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons. Source: A History of the Pioneer and Modern Times of Ashland County. Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott & Co. (1862)
Johnny Appleseed was a nursery grower who is credited with doing more than anyone else to spread apple trees throughout the United States.
Myth has him walking barefoot and planting apple seeds — but that wouldn’t have done any good, as apple trees don’t grow true to seed.
Instead, he what he actually did was sell, and give, young, grafted trees to settlers as he carried his business from the east coast across the continent to the American West.
He was born John Chapman in Leominster, Massachusetts on 26 September 1774. He died at the age of 74 on 11 March 1848.
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Johnny Appleseed gravesite, with apple memorials left. © Rochelle Karp / wikimedia / 2012 / CC BY-SA 3.0