REPORTS
THE BURIAL PLACE OF JOHN CHAPMAN
(JOHNNY APPLESEED)*
Report of the Commission Appointed by
the American
Pomological Society to Investigate Its
Location
Much has been published and more said
and written regard-
ing the life and work of John Chapman
(Johnny Appleseed),
the pioneer collector and planter of
apple seeds and the distributor
of seedling apple trees in western New
York and Pennsylvania
and throughout the Ohio Valley, northern
Ohio, and Indiana and
southwestern Michigan. While a considerable
part of the pub-
lished matter regarding him is obviously
fictional rather than ac-
curately historical, the general
character and economic importance
of his life and work are well
established.
Four other states have been credited
with his birth, but it is
now definitely known that he was born at
Leominster, Massa-
chusetts, September 26, 1774, the second
child of Nathaniel Chap-
man (later a Revolutionary War veteran)
and his wife, Elizabeth
Simons, daughter of James and Anna
Simons of Leominster.
Although the numerous published accounts
of his life vary greatly
and are contradictory in many respects,
it appears to be well
established that his death occurred in a
cabin in Allen County,
near Fort Wayne, Indiana, close to the
St. Joseph River about
three miles above its confluence with
the St. Mary's River where
it forms the Maumee River. The time of
his death has been
variously stated and published as during
the month of March in
1843, 1845, 1846 and 1847. The earliest
published record of his
death appears to have been in the Weekly
Fort Wayne Sentinel of
* Presented at the annual meeting of the
American Pomological Society at
Quincy, Illinois, December 14, 1942.
(181)
182
OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
Saturday, March 22, 1845, where his
death is stated to have oc-
curred on the previous Tuesday. If
correct, this would be March
18, 1845, but neither date nor place of
burial is mentioned.
Richard Worth, under date of March 17,
1845, assigned his fu-
neral account over to Jesse Coles, as
recorded in the John Chap-
man Estate papers.
For a quarter of a century following his
death there appears
to have been little public interest in,
or publicity regarding, the
events of his declining years, until a
well-written and illustrated
article, "Johnny Appleseed, A
Pioneer Hero," by W. D. Haley,
appeared in Harper's New Monthly
Magazine for November,
1871.
This made no reference to the exact date
or place of death
or of interment except in the words,
"Now no man knoweth the
place of his sepulchre."
An obviously hastily prepared letter
from J. W. Dawson,
dated Spy Run Avenue (Fort Wayne),
October 20, 1871, evi-
dently written after he had read the
Haley article in November
Harper's (which had corrected certain factual errors, but un-
fortunately introduced others), appeared
in the Fort Wayne Sen-
tinel for October 21 and 23, 1871. The Haley article and
Dawson
letter appear to have been the sources
from which later writers
drew much of their material, several of
them adding further
details and such embellishments as the
imagination of each pro-
duced, with the result that numerous
confusing factual errors
crept into their accounts of Johnny's
later years, death and
burial.
Contradictory statements regarding the
time of his death
and especially regarding the location of
his grave developed in
Fort Wayne in connection with the
discussion of "a better and
more fitting marking of the grave."
Because of this, a "Johnny
Appleseed Memorial Commission"
consisting of four members
was appointed by the Common Council of
the City of Fort
Wayne, August 14, 1934. The Commission,
after considering
both oral and written evidence that had
been submitted, reported
as follows on December 27, 1934:
"The members of the Commis-
sion do not recommend a change in the
accepted location of the
BURIAL PLACE OF JOHN CHAPMAN 183
grave
of Johnny Appleseed." This
evidently referred to the
Archer Cemetery which Dawson had named
as the place of
burial. The accuracy of this report
having been questioned by
Mr. W. S. Roebuck and other citizens
interested in the matter,
the American Pomological Society was
appealed to by the Three
Rivers Forum of Fort Wayne. Then the
Indiana Horticultural
Society, by a resolution adopted on
January 12, 1935, asked the
Pomological Society to make a
disinterested and thorough inves-
tigation to determine, if possible, the
exact place of his burial.
This Commission, after visiting the
locality, listening to the
sworn testimony of numerous witnesses,
conducting considerable
correspondence and studying more than 200 pages of
typewritten
manuscript reporting the results of
intensive research done by
Mr. Roebuck and associates on the matter
during several years
past, has reached the following
conclusions:
1. That from sometime in the early
thirties of the nine-
teenth century until his death (March 11
to 18), 1845, John
Chapman's part-time Indiana home was a
cabin near the Old
Indian Trail in St. Joseph Township,
Allen County, Indiana, near
the east bank of the St. Joseph River,
about three miles above its
confluence with the St. Mary's River
where it forms the Maumee
River at the City of Fort Wayne. The
nearest neighbor dwell-
ings were the cabin of Richard Worth and his son, William
Worth, and the cabin of David Worth,
probably a son of Richard
Worth, located near a spring which still
flows there. All three
of these cabins were located on land in
Section 19, T3N, R13E,
east of the St. Joseph River, then owned
by a non-resident, Henry
Cassel, of Harrison, Preble County,
Ohio, who secured it from
the government October 24, 1831. They
were, therefore, in the
status of squatters' cabins such as were
common in the region at
that time. The Cassel tract fronted on
the east side of the St.
Joseph River and extended eastward to
the St. Joseph State
Road; this road was surveyed in 1834
and, in 1835, was made a
state road to the north line of Allen
County and opened.
The land records of Allen County and the
Chapman Estate
papers show, however, that John Chapman
owned a tract on the
184
OHIO ARCHEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
north bank of the Maumee River in Milan
Township upon which,
at the time of his death, there was a
nursery containing 15,000
apple trees which were appraised as a
part of his estate by John
Nuttle, April 4, 1845, for John Harold,
the special estate admin-
istrator. This was merely one of a
considerable number of nur-
sery tracts owned or held by John
Chapman under lease in sev-
eral Ohio and Indiana counties at the
time of his death. On one
of these places, in Jay County, Indiana,
patented to him by the
government, May 20, 1837, and
about three miles from the home
of his half-sister, Mrs. Persis Broom,
in Wabash Township, he
had a 2,000 tree nursery and had had a
log cabin built, timber cut
and dressed for a barn, and eleven acres
of land cleared and
fenced. This suggests the possibility
that he intended to make
his home there.
2. Though there have been several
conflicting statements
at various times regarding the exact
location of his death and
burial, the best authenticated evidence
indicates that he became
ill in his cabin home early in March,
1845, and was removed to
the nearby cabin home of Richard Worth,
where he died, between
March 11 and 18, 1845. He was
buried on the same land on
which he died, in a walnut coffin made
in the woodworking shop
in the sawmill of Christian Parker, a
nearby neighbor who lived
on his own 160-acre farm (the SW 1/4
of Section 20) abutting the
Cassel tract on the southeast.
The available evidence indicates that in
March, 1845, there
were at least three small burial plots
in use not far from the cabin
home of John Chapman. The nearest one
was that on the Cassel
tract, owned since 1902 by Wesley S. and Lizzie Roebuck. This
was where Chapman's cabin home and those
of the Worths were
located, along with the farm home of
Christian Parker (in whose
shop the coffin was made) not far away.
This was in St. Joseph
Township, east of the St. Joseph River,
but west of the St. Joseph
State Road which bounded the Cassel
tract on the east.
Another burial plot, also on the east
side of the river, was
located farther north and known as the
Notestine Cemetery, and
still exists.
BURIAL PLACE OF JOHN CHAPMAN 185
Tile third, located farther south and
west of the river in
Washington Township, on the
Archer-Rudisill farm, which has
now long been known as the Archer
Cemetery, was stated by
Dawson to be the place of interment.
Evidently this was based
largely on statements which Dawson
credited to Samuel Fletter.
Fletter, according to Dawson, made the
coffin, laid out the body
and buried it in the Archer Cemetery,
though he mislocated the
house of William Worth, the stated place
of death, as west of the
river.
The Archer burial place was located on a
knoll on the David
Archer, Sr., farm on Section 25, in
Washington Township, it
fronting on the west side of the Wabash
and Erie Feeder Canal
(this canal parallels the St. Joseph
River on the west). Charles
Archer, a grandson of David Archer, Sr.,
stated in 1934 that
when his grandfather sold the farm to
Emanuel Rudisill in 1825
he reserved the three-acre family
burying ground. The real estate
records of the county show, however,
that this 98-acre tract was
deeded by David Archer, Sr., to Emanuel
Rudisill July 16, 1843,
with no reservation of or reference to a
burial plot. The burial
plot continued in use, however, and has
long been known as the
Archer Cemetery. Dawson stated (in 1871) that Chapman's
death occurred "on the 11th of
March, 1845, at the house of Wil-
liam Worth, in St. Joseph Township,
Allen County, Indiana, on
the land now owned by Jesse Cole, on the
Feeder Canal, and was
buried in a reasonable time thereafter,
at the family burying
ground set apart by David Archer
deceased, now owned by Mr.
Emanuel Rudisill."
Aside from Dawson's statement, which has
been accepted by
most subsequent writers, no evidence
that either Chapman or any
of the Worths at any time lived west of
the St. Joseph River has
come to our attention. In this
connection it should be noted that
William D. Zimmerman, a veteran local
nurseryman, in a wit-
nessed statement on September 3, 1934, said that
about 27 years
earlier, Jacob Rudisill, who inherited
the farm from his father,
was born and spent his entire life
there, had told Zimmerman in
response to his question as to the
burial place of Chapman, that
186
OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL
QUARTERLY
he, Rudisill, disclaimed any knowledge
as to whether it was on the
east side or west side of the river.
3. Careful study has been made by this
Commission, of the
statements in the Dawson letter (October
20, 1971),
which he
stated were "in general confirmed
by the papers on file in the
Probate Court, where his estate was
eleven years in being 'gobbled
up' from April, 1845, till the summer of
1856," and also of the
personal testimony and notarized
statements of Eben Miles Chap-
man, great nephew of John Chapman (dated
October 23, 1934),
and of Eleanor Parker Ayers, niece
(September 14, 1934), and
James Ayers, nephew of Christian Parker
(September 3, 1934),
and the witnessed statement of J. M. Stouder (May 29, 1932).
These statements appear to establish
beyond question the fact of
the existence of the burial plot on the
Cassel-Roebuck farm in
1845, and the substantially unanimous
understanding in the St.
Joseph Township community east of the
river that Johnny Apple-
seed was buried therein. Eben Miles
Chapman, born in 1858,
great nephew of John Chapman, described
in considerable detail
a visit there with his father and Uncle
Timothy during his boy-
hood when his father and uncle showed
him the grave of his
Great Uncle Johnny Appleseed, and they
cut down the weeds
around it with their jackknives. At one
time his father and
Uncle Timothy had cut poles with their
axes and built a three-
pole fence around the grave. His Uncle
Timothy told him that
he attended Uncle Johnny's funeral and
that he was the only
relative present. Eleanor Parker Ayers
described in convincing
detail a visit to the grave of Johnny
Appleseed made when she was
a little girl, in company with her
father, Jacob L. Parker, and her
uncle, Christian Parker, and she
identified the location as a little
burial ground on the Cassel-Roebuck
farm.
Apparently Dawson, when he wrote in
1871, had knowledge
of the existence of the Archer-Rudisill
burial plot in Washington
Township on the west side of the river
and had consulted Samuel
C. Fletter only. Apparently, also, he
was either unaware of the
then long-existing burial plot on the
Cassel-Parker-Roebuck farm
in Section 19 of St. Joseph Township on
the east side of the river
BURIAL PLACE OF JOHN CHAPMAN 187
and had failed to consult the Chapman
kinsfolk and Parker de-
scendants, or he had not correctly
interpreted the Chapman Estate
papers on file in the County Clerk's
office in Fort Wayne.
4. No actual record of interment has
been discovered or is
believed to exist. Such excavations as
have been made on the
Cassel-Roebuck site and reported
probings of the asserted grave
site in the Archer Cemetery have failed
to disclose physical evi-
dence of human remains at either place.
Careful study of all the
evidence brought to our attention
convinces your Commission
that the interment occurred in the then
existing burial plot on the
Cassel-Roebuck land which was long since
abandoned and obliter-
ated by the extensive grading operations
known to have been done
there. This is convincingly established
by the authoritative state-
ments of the nearest Chapman kinsfolk
descendants and of the
Parker descendants and the widespread
belief in the St. Joseph
Township community east of the river to
this effect. Had any
reason existed for interment in the
Archer Cemetery the known
heavily flooded condition of the St.
Joseph River at the time of
the death and burial of Chapman would
have necessitated a round
trip of 16 to 18 miles over impassably
muddy roads on the west
side of the river. This, however, does
not appear to have been
the case.
MEMBERS OF THE COMMISSION:
B. S. PICKETT
WENDELL PADDOCK
WILLIAM A. TAYLOR
* W. S. Roebuck's "Outline of Facts
Related to the Burial Place of John Chap-
man," and a map showing the
geographic relationship of the Archer Rudisill and
Cassel-Roebuck burial plots as they
existed in 1845, will be published in the next issue
of the Quarterly.