Times Observer photo by Brian Ferry Descendants of Dr. Leroy Chapman, the Pennsylvania State Senator after whom Chapman State Park is named, present a portrait of Chapman to Park Manager Tyson Martin on Thursday. From left are: Daley McGinley, Maryl McGinley, Wynn McGinley, Everett Shepanski, Max Roberts, Dan McGinley, Greta Shepanski, Julina Shepanski, Elsa Shepanski, Lena Shepanski, Bob Shepanski, Kerrin Chapman Roberts, Terryl Chapman, and Martin.

On Thursday, a family gathered in Warren County at a park named after one of their ancestors.

Chapman State Park took its name from Warren physician and Pennsylvania State Senator Leroy Chapman. Thirteen descendants of Chapman visited the park to see some of their grandfather’s (and great-grandfather’s and great-great-grandfather’s) legacy.

They also came bearing a gift.

Sisters Kerrin Chapman Roberts and Terryl Chapman, whose father, Dr. William Leroy Chapman, was Dr. and Sen. Leroy Chapman’s son, brought a large, framed portrait of their grandfather from New Jersey to present to Park Manager Tyson Martin.

Martin said that portrait will be prominently displayed in the park office. There is currently a much smaller photo of Chapman — taken Feb. 19, 1960, at Stokes Studio, according to the label on the back — in the office. “It really sparks conversation,” he said. He expects the new portrait to generate even more buzz.

Times Observer photo by Brian Ferry Granddaughters of Dr. and Sen. Leroy Chapman Terryl Chapman (left) and Kerrin Chapman Roberts react after receiving personal certificates of appreciation from Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resourced Chapman State Park Manager Tyson Martin. Members of Chapman’s family visited the park Thursday and donated a portrait of him.

The granddaughters believe the portrait was originally commissioned to be hung in the Pennsylvania Capitol.

“It’s more appropriate here,” Kerrin said. “It would be completely lost in Harrisburg.”

The portrait hung at the Chapman home at 1913 Pennsylvania Ave. E. in Warren, then in Kerrin’s barn.

The family is getting together for a family reunion in Punxsutawney this weekend.

During the planning for that event, Dan McGinley, who is the husband of Kerrin’s daughter Maryl, said, “Why don’t we take the portrait?” according to Terryl.

Times Observer photo by Brian Ferry Wynn McGinley, great-great-granddaughter of Dr. and Sen. Leroy Chapman, takes a peek at his portrait at the Chapman State Park office. The family donated the portrait to the park on Thursday.

The family arranged a visit with Martin and it was on the calendar. “I haven’t been here in 35 years,” Kerrin said.

“We’re so excited,” Terryl said. “I probably haven’t been here for 50 years. I remember driving up with my dad.”

In all, 13 descendants of Chapman — the two daughters, Maryl and Dan McGinley and their daughters Daley and Wynn, Terryl’s daughter Julina and her husband Bob Shepanski and their children Everett, Greta, Else, and Lena (who is named for Leroy’s wife, Lena Chapman), and Max Roberts, who is the son of Kerrin’s son, Zachary — made up the group that visited the park named in his honor.

The Chapman family posed for photos with Martin and the portrait. After learning more about the park and picking out an wide assortment of Chapman memorabilia from the gift shop, the family headed out to the beach and the trails for a scavenger hunt.

They planned to spend several hours in the area.

Kerrin and Terryl said they hoped to be able to visit their grandfather’s old home and office in Warren.

Terryl said the family had once considered buying the office building and having in moved to the park.

The physician office at 1911 Pennsylvania Ave. East and the family home at 1913 no longer stand.

But the memories live on.

“Leroy Chapman was a family doctor,” Terryl said. “He had an office next to the family home — $2 a visit. He made his medicine on premises.” She remembers the bottles and corks.

Her grandfather was a “big, lumbering guy,” she said. “Six-foot three.”

He had a sense of humor to match.

Their grandfather liked to pretend he couldn’t remember his granddaughters’ names. “He called us the little Susies,” Terryl said.

When the family would take trips to the shore, Chapman would make a point of cutting out newspaper clippings of shark attacks and warn his children to “watch out for the little Susies.”

“He was very funny,” she said. “He always made us smile.”

Terryl remembers her grandfather having a “very mysterious attic office” in the house.

One day, he took that particular little Susie up to the office.

“There were books everywhere,” she said. “He had a skull on the desk.”

While the park was not named after John Chapman, Leroy believed they were related to the historical figure.

“He said, ‘I’m going to show you a book that proves that you’re related to Johnny Appleseed,'” Terryl said.

She doesn’t remember the proof, nor even if she was old enough to read.

But, she was told she was a blood relative of John Chapman — Johnny Appleseed — though not a direct descendant.

“He didn’t have children,” she said.

Appleseed’s love was a forbidden one, Terryl said. Her family did not approve of him. But he did show his affection before setting off to plant apples far and wide, including, reportedly, his first grove near present-day Garland.

“He went to the church — her family sat in the front row,” Terryl said. “He dropped an apple branch from the the balcony in her lap.”

“She loved apple blossoms,” she said.

Then, he left and spread apples in honor of her.

Johnny Appleseed didn’t have any children, but his brother did, Terryl said, and the Chapman family traces its roots back to him. Martin refers to Leroy Chapman as the park’s benefactor. “He was instrumental in getting the land,” he said. Some of the land was donated. Some had to be purchased.

According to information provided by the park through the Warren County Historical Society, titles and warrants on the land date back to 1794.

In 1851, Philip Bucher bought several acres, and in 1866, a mill on Tionesta Creek built by Jacob Knoph.

The mill, and the name, lived on after Bucher’s death. Before the park was established, the whole area — about 1,600 acres — was known as Bucher’s Mill.

The mill closed in 1904. By 1940, a private hunting and fishing club owned the property.

In 1945, the creation of a state park was approved for the site.

Construction on the original dam started in 1949.

In 1950, newspaper editor Clare Berger suggested the park be named after Chapman. That proposal was approved and Chapman Dam State Park opened for day use in 1951.

In 1958, the beach opened and ‘Dam’ was dropped from the name — bringing the park to its current name — Chapman State Park.

Chapman was born in Warren on July 3, 1881. He served on the school board, the prison board, as county coroner for 12 years, and as Warren mayor for two terms.

He was elected to the State Senate in 1929 and remained in office through 1963. He passed away at home on July 16, 1967, at the age of 86.

“I just want everyone to know what a wonderful guy he was,” Terryl said.