Master Surname Index



Johnny Appleseed

Ancestry of
Johnny Appleseed

aka John Chapman


Who was Johnny Appleseed?

Johnny Appleseed is an American legend. He was born John Chapman on 26 September 1774 in Leominster, Massachusetts to Nathaniel and Elizabeth (Simonds) Chapman.

John Chapman traveled from Pennsylvania to Illinois on foot planting apple seeds and cultivating nurseries wherever he went. He would locate his nurseries along streams and surround them with a brush fence. John traveled hundreds of miles each year to visit his nurseries and prune the trees.

When the settlers followed, John would sell his trees to them for a "fip-penny-bit" which was about 6 cents per tree. If the settler didn't have the money, he would barter with them or extend them credit.

John's mission was a peaceful one and he never carried a weapon or killed anything, even for food. It has been said that the Indians regarded him as a great "Medicine Man." Along the way, John became known as "Johnny Appleseed" and became a national folk hero.

His final mission was to a nursery near Fort Wayne, Indiana, where he had heard that cattle had broken into the nursery and were destroying his trees. The day was cold with occasional flurries as John walked the 20 miles to the nursery. At 70 years of age, the trip appeared to be too much for John as he lodged at the home of William Worth. In the morning they found John suffering from a high fever and he died on 18 March 1845.

It is said that Johnny Appleseed was "buried in David Archer's graveyard, two and a half miles north of Fort Wayne, near the foot of a natural mound, and a stone was set up to mark his grave." Today there is a gravesite memorial in Fort Wayne's Archer Park which has been included in the National Register of Historic Places.


Some of the most recently added connections of famous kin for Johnny Appleseed

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Alpheus Felch

5th Governor of Michigan

7th cousin 2 times removed
via Simon Stone

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Nathaniel B. Baker

24th Governor of New Hampshire

6th cousin 1 time removed
via David Stone

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Styles Bridges

63rd Governor of New Hampshire

6th cousin 3 times removed
via Samuel Morse

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Ben Jealous

President and CEO of NAACP

6th cousin 6 times removed
via Thomas Richardson

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Dr. Benjamin Spock

American Pediatrician and Author on Child Care

6th cousin 4 times removed
via Thomas Richardson

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Tony Dow

TV Actor

5th cousin 5 times removed
via Gregory Stone

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Bill Nye

TV's The Science Guy

4th cousin 4 times removed
via Samuel Blodgett

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Ava Michelle

Model and Actress

5th cousin 7 times removed
via Gregory Stone

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Alice French

(aka Octave Thanet)
Novelist and Short Story Writer

2nd cousin 3 times removed
via John Lawrence

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Margot Kidder

TV and Movie Actress

4th cousin 5 times removed
via William Simonds

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Lindsay Wagner

TV and Movie Actress

5th cousin 5 times removed
via John Lawrence

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Brewster H. Shaw

NASA Astronaut

4th cousin 6 times removed
via John Trumbull

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Brewster H. Shaw

NASA Astronaut

5th cousin 6 times removed
via Mark Symonds

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Tommy Lee

Mötley Crüe, Co-Founder and Musician

8th cousin 6 times removed
via Thomas Morse

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Charlie Day

TV and Movie Actor

5th cousin 5 times removed
via Isaac Stearns

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Geena Davis

Movie and TV Actress

6th cousin 5 times removed
via Samuel Morse

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Geena Davis

Movie and TV Actress

4th cousin 5 times removed
via William Simonds

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Daniel Henry Chamberlain

76th Governor of South Carolina

6th cousin 1 time removed
via David Stone

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Shelley Fabares

TV and Movie Actress

8th cousin 6 times removed
via Thomas Morse

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John Lithgow

Stage, TV, and Movie Actor

4th cousin 4 times removed
via Nathaniel Lawrence

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James Merrill

Pulitzer Prize Winning Poet

5th cousin 5 times removed
via Gregory Stone

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Charles Edward Merrill

Co-Founder of Merrill Lynch & Company

5th cousin 4 times removed
via Gregory Stone

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Margot Kidder

TV and Movie Actress

5th cousin 4 times removed
via Thomas Green Sr.

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Brooke Adams

TV and Movie Actress

6th cousin 4 times removed
via Thomas Richardson

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Isaac Stearns

(c1600 - 1671)
Great Migration Immigrant 1630

4th great-grandfather

View entire list of famous kin for Johnny Appleseed

Please note: The ancestor reports on this website have been compiled from thousands of different sources, many over 100 years old. These sources are attached to each ancestor so that you can personally judge their reliability. As with any good genealogical research, if you discover a link to your own family tree, consider it a starting point for further research. It is always preferable to locate primary records where possible. FamousKin.com cannot and does not guarantee the accuracy and reliability of these sources.