The Story
More than two hundred years ago, a young man named John Chapman set out from the state of Massachusetts with nothing but a sack of apple seeds and a heart full of hope.
He went barefoot in summer and wore a tin pot as a hat. He had no home of his own — he slept under the stars or in the barns of friendly settlers. But wherever he went, he planted apple seeds.
He became known as Johnny Appleseed.
Johnny loved nature. He talked gently to animals, and they did not fear him. He slept beside bears without worry. He was kind to every creature he met.
As settlers moved westward across Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois, they often found something wonderful waiting for them — apple orchards, already growing, planted by Johnny years before. A frontier family that might have nothing but hard work and empty prairie would look up one day and see apple blossoms.
Children came running when they heard Johnny Appleseed was coming down the road. He would sit with them and tell stories and share seeds. He never charged money for his seeds or his stories.
"The bees do not ask to be paid for making honey," he would say. "The rain does not send a bill for falling. Why should I?"
Johnny walked across America for nearly fifty years, planting and caring and moving on. He died in 1845, in Indiana — but the trees he planted lived on for generations.
To this day, the apple orchards of the American Midwest carry a little piece of Johnny Appleseed in every bloom.