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The John Chapman (Johnny Appleseed) Story


 
See Also:
Beginning of a FAMOUS Hero: The Isaac Newton Story.
Life Lesson #1 – Build a Foundation.

 

I know you’ve heard of the Legend of Johnny Appleseed — the funny man with a long white beard who wore a cooking pot on his head and went around scattering apple seeds everywhere?!

Well, did you know that Johnny Appleseed wasn’t just a story, and that he wasn’t really funny or strange? He was a real man, and his real name was John Chapman. He was born in September of 1774 in Massachusetts.

John was a very religious man, and he talked about his religious beliefs with everyone he saw.

When he was still a young man, John Chapman began traveling west, not scattering appleseeds but carefully planting apple seedlings all along the way. Some trees he sold, and others he gave to the pioneer settlers because apples were such an important food for them.

For over fifty years, John Chapman traveled throughout the mid-west part of the United States planting thousands of apple trees and talking to people about religion. Many people called him a great missionary.

Today, even though our country has changed dramatically from those early days, most of the apple trees in the United States came from those original seedlings carefully planted by that great nurseryman named John Chapman known affectionately by everyone as Johnny Appleseed, the HERO.

– Jim Lord