Johnny Appleseed Day

March 11 is Johnny Appleseed Day. It honors one of America’s most beloved legends, that of the simple, somewhat eccentric itinerant farmer, Johnny Appleseed, who walked through the Ohio Valley barefoot with a pot on his head, planting apple seeds.

The true story, that of John Chapman, is only a little less sensational. The religious apple farmer introduced that fruit to much of Western Pennsylvania, Northern Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois. Those states’ thriving apple industries owe much to Johnny Appleseed. He passed away suddently on March 11, 1845, after catching a fever.

^{(photo © 1871 Harper’s Monthly)}