The Real Johnny Chapman

House believed to have belonged to the Chapmans c. 1909

Emerson Photo Collection, Longmeadow Historical Society

Oh, how I wish I had a picture of Johnny Chapman, but I don't! Nobody does because he lived long before cameras were invented. There are no painted portraits of him or his family because they would have cost a lot of money, and Johnny's family didn't have a lot of money.

Many people have drawn pictures of what they imagine Johnny looked like as an adult, but nobody knows for sure. However, there are some facts about his life that we do know for sure.

Johnny Chapman was born September 26, 1774 in Leominster, Massachusetts. His parents were Nathaniel and Elizabeth Chapman. His older sister, also named Elizabeth, was born in 1770. Johnny's father left home when he was a baby to fight in the American Revolution. His mother had the help of her family, who also lived in Leominster, while her husband was away. Sadly, Johnny's mother and a new baby brother died in 1776 before Johnny turned two years old. Since his father was off at war, Johnny and his sister lived with either his grandparents or his aunts and uncles in Leominster.

When the war ended, Johnny's father married a new wife and settled in Longmeadow, Massachusetts near her family. He had been stationed nearby at the Springfield Arsenal for the last three years of his service in the war. Johnny joined his father and new stepmother around 1780 in Longmeadow, but it seems his sister stayed with her mother's family in Leominster.

Johnny likely attended school in Longmeadow because there is proof in historical documents that shows that he knew how to read and write. He appears in two different historical records in the Longmeadow Historical Society that prove he was here for at least 10 years. One place he turned up was in a storekeeper's record book. That actually became an important scene in Chapter 1 of my book. Colonel Hale was a real person and he really did record in his account book that Captain Nathaniel Chapman received some rum and sugar, "delivered [to] your boy." At the time the entry was written, Johnny was the only boy Captain Chapman had. The other entry is ten years later in the seating assignments for the church he attended. "John Chapman" is seated in pew 57 with other young men his age. He would have been 17 years old.

The next time he appears anywhere is in Pennsylvania. Then he was in Ohio and then Indiana.

He became famous for being a man who planted orchards of apple trees. The United States was growing westward as a country, and it appears that Johnny was making a living by bringing apple seeds to places where there were no apple trees. Apples were an incredibly valuable resource for people. Products made from apples provided food, drink, and even medicine. Most importantly perhaps, they reminded people of the homes they had left behind as they made new homes in faraway places.