Mansfield blockhouse photograph

This image shows a blockhouse in Mansfield that stood when Johnny Appleseed (John Chapman, 1704-1784) ran for reinforcements against a pending Indian attack during the War of 1812. Chapman immediately went to Mount Vernon for assistance. Chapman risked his own life to summon aid for his neighbors in Richland County. This willingness to suffer for others was a trait Chapman exhibited throughout his life. John Chapman was born on September 26, 1774, in Leominster, Massachusetts. Beginning in 1802, Chapman wandered through Pennsylvania and eventually Ohio, planting apple nurseries. He spent most of his time in Ohio in Richland County near Mansfield. He was known as being somewhat of an eccentric. Chapman opposed violence of all sorts towards both humans and animals. He was a strict vegetarian. He also primarily wore discarded clothing or would barter some apple saplings for used clothes. Many of Ohio's first orchards began with saplings from Chapman's nurseries. His trees fed many of Ohio's early white settlers as they struggled to establish farms and homes on the frontier. Johnny Appleseed eventually owned more than 1,200 acres of land across Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois. He died near Fort Wayne, Indiana, in the early 1840s. This image of the Mansfield blockhouse was among the photographs produced by the Federal Works Progress Administration (WPA) between 1935 and 1943