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There was some argument about exactly where he was actually buried, but most people believe it was near the memorial marker that was eventually erected in his honor in what became Johnny Appleseed Park.
John Chapman was born September 26, 1774, in Leominster, Mass.
His father was Nathaniel Chapman, a farmer and carpenter. Nathaniel Chapman was a Minuteman in the Revolutionary War and fought at the battle of Bunker Hill in June 1775 and later with George Washington's army in New York.
A Minuteman was a volunteer soldier who promised to be ready to fight at a moment's notice. John Chapman's ancestors came from England in 1639, and even the first ones to arrive here had an interest in growing trees.
When Edward Chapman died in 1678, he left his wife "10 good bearing fruit trees near the end of the house.
Johnny Appleseed's mother, Elizabeth Chapman, died when John was only 1 year old. Little is known about Johnny Appleseed's boyhood. Some say, however, that he spent the summers between 1782 and 1788 at the farm of a relative, Thomas Mann, near Mason, N.H.
