“John Chapman, or Johnny Appleseed was born September 26th1774, was the second child of Nathaniel Chapman and his wife, the former Elizabeth Symonds. of Leominster, Massachusetts. His father started young John upon a career as an Orchardist by apprenticing him to a Mr. Crawford, who had an apple orchard.
There are so many legends and myths surrounding the guy, you might be tempted to blow him off as just a story.
I (DM) got it in my head a couple of years ago to see if it were still possible to get a tree for our apple orchard that had some connection to Johnny Appleseed. I got on line and discovered Historic Trees where you can purchase direct offspring started from cuttings taken from the last known surviving tree he planted.
We purchased (3) of them and planted them by our old barn. Here is a photo of one of them I took this morning:
The deer are thick in our neck of the woods, so I had to put a fence around the young trees.
Here is the certificate of authenticity you get with the tree:
Here is a photo of the original tree from a magazine article before it died:
There are over 2000 varieties of apple trees world wide. This variety is called a Winter Rambo. It is a tart, red- striped apple. These flavorful heirloom apples, which are great for pies and dumplings, and make good applesauce.
My thought is, when this tree gets a little bigger, have an outdoor sign made w/ this certificate placed next to the tree.
I love incorporating whimsey in my life, this tree, does that for me.
How about you? What sort of ways do you add whimsy into your life?
Getting back to Johnny Appleseed for just a second. The guy was a real person. If you get on line, you can find him on the genealogy websites. If you know someone whose last name is Chapman it might be fun to see if there is a connection.
Twice I have dressed up like Mr John Chapman (pot on my head, fake beard, bare foot) and given a presentation in our local library My wife has accompanied me dressed in period costume. I have a couple of pictures around somewhere…if I can lay my hands on them I will post them .
I think there may be a little of Johnny in me 
I was always touched by the story of Johnny Appleseed, and felt if I had another life, I’d want to do what he did, just plant food for people and leave that as a legacy.
My grandparents, William Edgar and Louelsa Mason Deer
were from Corning, Iowa. The moved sometime after their marriage to Kolin, Montana and wheat farmed. They left when my Dad was 2 [1921], having lost the farm, but Grandpa urban farmed for many years in St John’s, an area of Portland, Oregon. I got my love of growing things from him.
He always made it seem such a miracle.
I wish you many happy re-enactment years; and good apples.