Johnny Appleseed

When Americans bite into crisp, fresh-picked apples or slices of apple pie, they should thank John Chapman. No one did more to encourage the cultivation of apple orchards during America’s frontier days. Chapman’s efforts made him a legendary folk hero and earned him the nickname “Johnny Appleseed.”

Each fall during cider-making time, Chapman collected seeds from the sweet-smelling cider presses. He carefully washed them, and dried them in the sun. Then he planted the seeds in forests and fields. For more than 40 years, beginning in the late 1700s, Chapman crisscrossed Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Indiana, tending his budding apple trees and showing people how to start their own orchards.

Dressed in tattered clothes, he cheerfully endured the hardships of pioneer life. People thought him odd, but praised his friendliness and sincereity. However, during the War of 1812, John Chapman saved the hamlet of Mansfield, Ohio, by summoning troops to defend it against a Native American attack.

Not much is known about John Chapman’s life. But as Johnny Appleseed, the sower of tiny seeds that grew into stately orchards, he holds a unique place in American frontier history.

Daniel Boone

Daniel Boone ranks as one of the first American heroes. Short on education, he was long on adventurousness, courage, and frontier skills.

At the age of 21, Boone joined a British military expedition to drive the French out of the Ohio Valley and barely espcaped with his life, as did young George Washington. In 1767, Boone began exploring Kentucky, blazing the Wilderness Trail through the Cumberland Gap and then leading new settlers west. He founded the settlement of Boonesborough in 1775. Because Kentucky was prime Shawnee and Cherokee hunting ground, Indians and settlers often battled one another. At one point, the Shawnee captured Boone and took him far away from home, but he escaped and used his wilderness skills to make the 160-mile trek back in only four days.
In 1782, Boone fought in the so-called “last battle of the Revolutionary War” near Boonesborough against the British and Indian forces. He later served as an officer in the militia and as a state legislator. His claims to land in Kentucky were invalidated because of improper registration, but Congress gave him land in Missouri, where he lived until his death in 1820.

Boone prided himself on being able to find his way anywhere. When asked whether he had ever been lost, he replied, “I can’t say as ever I was lost, but I was bewildered once for three days.”