Johnny Appleseed, there is the myth and legend, but then there is the man. We all know bits and pieces of the legend. Most of us know little about the man, fewer still know the man beyond some sparse general details.
I was reading a book that briefly mentioned the man and it described him as a land speculator who planted apple seeds to start trees in order to get free land from the government. There was a requirement to getting the deed for the need to plant 50 apple trees on the land to get it for free.
Once he acquired the deed to the land, he flipped the property and move on to the next. Nowhere have I ever seen that Johnny Appleseed was a land speculator, nor that he planted apple seeds to get land.
But this is a better motivator than the legend of a crackpot, dressed in rags wearing a pot on his head throwing apple seeds wherever he went. This make him seem more human and real than the myths and legends, or tall tales.