Johnny Appleseed life and biography

Johnny Appleseed, born John Chapman, was an American pioneer nurseryman who introduced apple trees to large parts of Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois. He became an American legend while still alive, largely because of his kind and generous ways, his great leadership in conservation, and the symbolic importance he attributed to apples.

John Chapman was an itinerant agriculturalist and missionary who became known as "Johnny Appleseed", a folk hero of the 19th century American frontier. He showed up in the Ohio River Valley sometime around 1800 and spent the next half-century planting and tending apple orchards as far west as Indiana, usually ahead of the oncoming settlers. He is said to have also been a missionary, occasionally preaching the Christian teachings of Emanuel Swedenborg. Although it's clear John Chapman -- Johnny Appleseed -- really existed, speculation and rumor inform the tales of his kindness, his raggedy appearance or his motive for planting apple seeds in the first place.

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