{"id":201,"date":"2016-10-10T04:18:56","date_gmt":"2016-10-10T04:18:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.genealogyatheart.com\/?p=201"},"modified":"2016-10-10T04:18:56","modified_gmt":"2016-10-10T04:18:56","slug":"the-apple-doesnt-fall-far-from-the-tree-the-real-life-of-johnny-appleseed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.genealogyatheart.com\/?p=201","title":{"rendered":"The Apple Doesn’t Fall Far From the Tree – The Real Life of Johnny Appleseed"},"content":{"rendered":"

Originally published on genealogyatheart.blogspot.com on 16 Oct 2015.<\/p>\n

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When I think of fall I don’t think about pumpkins and leaves like most. \u00a0Instead, I think of apples. \u00a0I loved apple picking as a child and I knew what would come soon after, my grandma’s apple strudel. We bobbed them, tried to bite chunks out that were dangling from the ceiling and dunked them in caramel. \u00a0My neighbor, Carol, and I would twist the core while reciting the alphabet to determine the initials of who we would marry someday. Sweet or tart, there’s an apple for every one’s taste.<\/p>\n

When my in-laws moved to a rural part of northeastern Indiana in the 1980’s, hubby and I always knew where to turn on the unmarked road – just look for the old abandoned apple orchard on the corner. \u00a0The trees were gnarly and the fruit small and withered. \u00a0It always looked creepy to me, even on a bright sunny summertime day. \u00a0I remarked to my father-in-law that it was a shame the trees were neglected. \u00a0He said that he had heard that they were once owned by Johnny Appleseed. \u00a0Little did I know how right he was.<\/p>\n

I knew Johnny Appleseed was a real person named John Chapman. \u00a0With a romantic notion of him traveling the west to plant apple seedlings so that pioneers could benefit from the delicious fruit on their journey, I knew little else about him.<\/p>\n

I passed on the story of Johnny Appleseed to my children every fall when I made my mother’s apple salad. They wanted us to plant an apple tree but in our part of Florida, that wouldn’t work.<\/p>\n

Imagine my surprise when I discovered this newspaper clipping with my father’s papers after his death in the late 1990’s:<\/p>\n

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Like most everything my family has left me, I have no idea of the source. \u00a0Grrr-no newspaper name or date. Did Dad save it because the name Leininger was mentioned or was he, too, related somehow to Johnny Appleseed? \u00a0Dad and I weren’t close but there was an apple tree on my grandparent’s farm in Hobart, Indiana that I used to climb. \u00a0Wouldn’t someone have told me if Johnny Appleseed was a relation?<\/p>\n

John and George Leininger are common names in the family – I’ve got 19 John’s and 18 George’s. In addition, I’ve got combined John George and George John. \u00a0I knew John Chapman never married and I had no Chapman’s in my tree so I assumed the clipping was because of seeing the Leininger name. Yet, there was some other oddities that made me wonder. \u00a0My step-grandmother was from Michigan, close to Hastings, and the Leininger family first settled in Ohio, though it was not Ashtabula. \u00a0My aunt’s name was Bonita and she once lived near Columbia City, Indiana. \u00a0Hmmm.<\/p>\n

It wasn’t until a distant cousin emailed me his Leininger records that I learned that John Chapman was involved with the Leininger family and that spooky old orchard did in fact once belong to him.<\/p>\n

“According to a deed signed by President Martin Van Buren, John Chapman owned 74.04 acres in the South 1\/2 of the N.W. 1\/4 Sec. 3 Twp 24 Range 15. \u00a0The deed was dated March 11, 1836. This land is located in the far northeast corner of Jay County, on the Wabash River. \u00a0It was on this land that he planted a nursery of appletree seedlings…. John Leininger purchased through a deed, entered July 1, 1839, 128.60 acres of the S.E. fraction of Sec. 15 of the same township. This land was located about two miles south of Chapman’s land. \u00a0John Leininger also purchased eight acres of land in Mercer Co., Ohio, on the other side of the State Line from his larger purchase. \u00a0He built his house and buildings on the eight acres, so that he could send his children to Ohio schools, which were better at the time than Indiana’s. \u00a0Please realize that this area was practically wilderness at this time.”1 \u00a0My dear readers know I’ve written earlier about my family’s interesting ways to get their children into the best school districts – see blog of 20 August 2015 Education Across State Lines.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
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The John Chapman and John Leininger Farms – Map courtesy of Robert LeRoy Leininger in his book, Leininger Family History and Genealogy (1970) p. 7F<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

So here’s how John Chapman is connected to the Leininger Family. \u00a0John’s step-sister, Percis Chapman (15 Nov 1793-28 Jun 1859), married William Broom (1792-1 Mar 1848). \u00a0Percis was known as John’s favorite sibling so he remained close to her, even after her marriage to William. Percis and William had 4 daughters, Mary, Lucy, Elizabeth and Harriet. \u00a0Elizabeth (10 Sep 1829-2 Jun 1863) married John George Leininger (7 Feb 1826-31 Mar 1917).<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
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Elizabeth Broom Leininger Photo courtesy of Jill on Find-a-Grave<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

John George and Elizabeth had 6 children before her death. \u00a0He remarried to Sarah Hough in 1864<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
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Sarah Hough and John George Leininger Photo courtesy of \u00a0Robert LeRoy Leininger<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

and had 5 more children. \u00a0John George is my 2nd great uncle, sibling to my 2nd great grandfather Jacob Leininger.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
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John George’s brothers Henry (left) and Jacob (my 2nd Great Grandfather-right) \u00a0Photo courtesy of Robert LeRoy Leininger<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n
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I’ve written about John George in a previous blog (see 26 June 2015 Planes, Trains, Automobiles & Barges, Oh My!) and how difficult it must have been for my 3rd great grandmother, Marie Gasse Leininger, to have to journey to America with young children.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n\n
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Marie Margaretha Gasse Leininger Photo courtesy of Robert LeRoy Leininger<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

According to family recollections, Johnny Appleseed lived with Percis and William when he came back to Indiana. \u00a0William tended Johnny’s land in his absence and when Johnny died in 1845, Percis inherited Johnny’s 1200 acre nursery.2 \u00a0Johnny was a wealthy man at the time of his death.<\/p>\n

I don’t know what religion Percis and William followed but their daughter, Elizabeth, married into a Lutheran family. \u00a0Johnny, however, followed the tenets of theologian Emmanuel Swedenborg. \u00a0At the end of his days, Johnny was a barefoot vegetarian who preferred to treat everyone and everything with respect. \u00a0Since that included Native Americans, animals and insects, Johnny was viewed as eccentric.<\/p>\n

Here’s some things I bet you didn’t know about Johnny:<\/p>\n