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According to Wikipedia, his real name was John Chapman. Is this true?

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Is there any reason to assume otherwise? The wikipedia article appears to have a good diversity of sources. – BrotherJack May 4 '12 at 18:58
@BrotherJack - I kind of felt that way too (as you can hopefully see from my answer). However, a lot of folks do assume all American folklore characters (JA, Paul Bunyon, John Henry, etc) to be fictional, so I can see where it would be surprising to some to find out this one happens to be based on a real person. – T.E.D.♦ May 4 '12 at 20:55
...oh, forgot my favorite semi-real-life American folkore - The Crossroads : en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Johnson#Devil_legend and en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tommy_Johnson_(blues_musician) ) – T.E.D.♦ May 4 '12 at 21:02

closed as not constructive by BrotherJack, Steven Drennon♦ May 4 '12 at 21:10

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1 Answer

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Yes.

It is true that John Chapman existed, and it is also true that he became known as "Johnny Appleseed". I can't vouch for every word in his Wikipedia biography, but I don't see anything clearly outlandishly wrong in there.

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