MANSFIELD — “Johnny Appleseed in a Rich Land,” by Peggy Welch Mershon, a book about the iconic historical figure and the people in Richland County who knew him and wrote about him, is being released Aug. 15.
The book is available from area bookstores and online.
Mershon is a long-time Mansfield journalist, wrote a history column for the News Journal from 2012 to 2017, and has been active in area historical and genealogical societies.
She says this is not a biography like the dozens that have been written, although important background facts have been included. Rather, this book emphasizes the work of a number of Richland area people.
The books includes work of Salathiel Coffinberry, Rosella Rice, James McGaw, William Bushnell and a number of Richland Countians who responded to the Roeliff Brinkerhoff’s 1857 call for local history. Illustrations picture these people as well as original source material.
