What's So Great About Johnny Appleseed?

The common image that most of us have of Johnny Appleseed is a man skipping down the road with a tin pot on his head, an old coffee sack for clothing, carrying nothing but a leather bag full of apple seeds. We imagine him alongside riverbanks planting trees that would produce ripe, juicy apples for pies and snacks. We see him sort of just wandering around, travelling from one place to another with no particular destination in mind. Just about everything in the previous paragraph is wrong. Johnny Appleseed has been called a lot of things, from eccentric to strange to downright insane -but it's safe to say that much of what has been said and written about him is completely untrue and is based on stories, not on reality. The real Johnny Appleseed was a much more complicated figure. Born just before the American Revolution broke out, young Johnny quickly learned how life can change in the blink of an eye. You may know Johnny Appleseed's name, but perhaps you've wondered, "What's so great about him?"