Was Johnny Appleseed a Real Person?

Within Chapman’s lifetime, oral accounts of his activities began to circulate. Most of these focused on his wilderness skills and his remarkable physical endurance. Chapman was also memorable for his eccentric clothing: instead of a shirt, he usually wore a sack with holes for his head and arms, and on his feet were worn-out shoes or no shoes at all. True to his nickname (which seems to have emerged late in his lifetime), he carried a bag of apple seeds. Chapman was a devout follower of the mystical teachings of the Swedish theologian Emanuel Swedenborg, proselytizing and distributing Swedenborg’s writings as he traveled. To the rugged pioneers he encountered on his travels, Chapman’s insistence on treating all animals with kindness—even mosquitoes and rattlesnakes—in keeping with the Swedenborgian doctrine that “the life of religion is to do good” must have seemed very unusual.