Johnny Appleseed's Grave
Near Fort Wayne, Indiana
This mound holds the grave of John Chapman, the man America remembers as Johnny Appleseed. He was born in Massachusetts in seventeen seventy-four, and for more than forty years he walked the frontier of Ohio and Indiana, planting apple nurseries ahead of the settlers and selling or giving away the seedlings. He was a barefoot wanderer, a devout follower of the mystic Emanuel Swedenborg, and far more shrewd businessman than the folk legend suggests. He spent his final years near Fort Wayne and died here in eighteen forty-five.
The weathered stone reads, he lived for others. The exact spot of his burial was disputed for generations, so the marker you see is partly a memorial. The park around it, and the festival every September, keep one of the nation's gentlest legends alive.
