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| Johnny Appleseed 5 Cent Stamp Issued Sept. 24, 1966 United States Post Office |
John Chapman was born in Leominster, Massachusetts on September 26, 1774 to Nathaniel and Elisabeth (Simonds) Chapman. Their daughter Elisabeth was almost 4 years old. Two years later Nathaniel (one of the Minute Men) left his family to fight in the Revolutionary War. Money was scarce. In 1776 the mother was expecting her 3rd child and her husband was still fighting in the war. Both she and her infant son also named Nathaniel died in July of 1776. It is believed that the Chapman children Elisabeth and John then lived with their mother's relatives in Leominster.
The father Nathaniel Chapman was a widower. He continued serving our new nation in 1777 by becoming a Captain at the Springfield Arsenal in Springfield, MA. (Later the Springfield Arsenal became the Springfield Armory.)
Nathaniel met a young woman named Lucy Cooley of Springfield, MA. (Longmeadow was incorporated as a town in the year 1783 and at the time it was part of Springfield). On July 24, 1780 Nathaniel and Lucy Cooley were married. Lucy's father George Colton Cooley had died 2 years earlier after getting Smallpox "by innoculation". Her father was a direct descendant of Ensign Benjamin Cooley one of the first settlers in Longmeadow. Lucy had received an inheritance with property from her father.
Young John and most likely his sister Elisabeth, too, traveled to Longmeadow to live with their father and their new step- mother in a small house. John Chapman was 6 years old and Elisabeth was 10. Little information is available about Elisabeth's youth. She did marry Nathaniel Rudd, Jr. in 1799 and they lived in Charlemont, MA.
Nathaniel and Lucy began raising their own family and their small house became smaller. Young John was older than his step-brothers and step-sisters and was also adventurous. It was the time period after the Revolutionary War when area residents packed up and traveled west to begin new lives for themselves. Three of John's step-mother's Cooley cousins who were about the same age as he was did travel west to live.
Sometime in the 1790's John and his step-brother Nathaniel traveled to Pennsylvania. Then, John continued his adventures alone- heading west. He traveled with apple seeds collected from cider mills in Pennsylvania and planted the apple seeds in the Ohio/ Indiana area. The seeds grew into saplings that he sold to settlers that were arriving in those areas. Sometimes, the saplings were given free of charge or "bartered for". It was easier for the settlers to purchase the saplings from his nurseries and replant them. Soon the trees would produce apples. The apples produced by these grown trees were sour and they were used in making apple cider. Cider was the popular beverage of the time period.
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| Johnny Appleseed's Travels |
John's father Nathaniel and his step- mother Lucy along with their ten children did all move out west. Nathaniel and Lucy and the children that were still living at home in Longmeadow packed up their belongings and moved to Ohio in 1805. Two years after arriving in Ohio, Nathaniel died.
John Chapman was given the nickname "Johnny Appleseed"! He was a businessman with apple tree nurseries and he was also a man who believed in and spread the teachings of the Swedenborgian religion. This religion is also now known as The New Church. According to this religion the grafting of trees would have been forbidden. John Chapman's trees were grown from seeds. Branches had not been grafted onto them.
Johnny Appleseed died in March of 1845 in Indiana. His accomplishments are celebrated in his hometown of Leominster, MA where he was born. There are festivals in his honor in Autumn in many towns and cities where he traveled and where he lived. On May 28, 1936 the city of Springfield, MA celebrated the 300th anniversary and the city celebrated Johnny Appleseed with a Memorial Pageant at the new Stebbins Park in Springfield.
John Chapman was educated. He was able to read the leaflets of the Swedenborgian religion that he practiced and that he also distributed. He was a friend to the Native Americans. John was known to have walked barefoot and wore hand me down clothes. He was a businessman who did live part of his life in Longmeadow, MA.
Additional information:
According to legend the house in the photo below from the Emerson Collection at the Longmeadow Historical Society shows the small house that Nathaniel and Lucy Chapman lived in with their 10 children. It had been moved to this location at 135 Bliss Road from another area in Longmeadow before this photo was taken on June 14, 1916.
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| 135 Bliss Road Longmeadow, MA Owner: Dr. Rolla W. Graves Date: June 14, 1916 |
Then, this house was moved once again by Dr. Graves where it is now located at 14 Fairfield Terrace in Longmeadow.
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| Source: Springfield Republican Date: Dec 13, 1916 |
This photo below from the Emerson Collection shows the house in the middle that was built by Dr. Rolla W. Graves on the property at 135 Bliss Road.
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| 135 Bliss Road- house in middle Longmeadow, MA Owner: Dr. Rolla W. Graves Date: June 1919 |
Sources: Johnny Appleseed Man & Myth by Robert Price; Johnny Appleseed and the American Orchard by William Kerrigan; Johnny Appleseed Museum in Urbana, Ohio; Leominster, MA Historical Society; and Springfield Republican: May 29, 1936.
~Written by Judy Moran
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