Old Glory: America in Archives

Dorothy Gish (March 11, 1898 – June 4, 1968)

Study in Black and Green, c. 1906

This Day in History: Johnny Appleseed

On or around this day in 1845, Johnny Appleseed passes away in Indiana. Of course, that wasn’t his real name. Johnny Appleseed’s real name was John Chapman.

Chapman was born in the years immediately before the American Revolution. Many details of his early life are sketchy, but we do know that his father served at the Battle of Bunker Hill. He may have been apprenticed to an orchardist and nurseryman, but no one is sure. As a young adult, he decided to take advantage of an opportunity in the Northwest Territory. Unclaimed land was available to settlers, but settlers had to plant fruit trees to prove intent to stay for an extended period of time. (Planting an orchard was evidence of an intent to stay because the trees took so long to bear fruit.)

You can probably guess what Chapman did next. He collected leftover apple seeds from cider presses in Pennsylvania and he set off for the Northwest Territory.

Marion Davies