Remember When: A look at more area high schools and how they got their names

Editor’s note: This is part two of a two-part series.

If you look a little deeper into the name of your local high school, you might be surprised by what you find. How local high schools were given their names can sometimes have interesting backstories.

Here are some intriguing ones from the Alle-Kiski Valley:

Burrell

The school gets its name from Judge Jeremiah Murry Burrell, who, as a presiding Westmoreland County judge in 1852, approved creating a new municipality that was broken away from Allegheny Township.

Successful petitioners named the new municipality Burrell Township, after the judge. In 1879, Lower Burrell and Upper Burrell further divided the township.

In 1960, Lower and Upper Burrell formed the Burrell Joint School District, and the high school opened in 1964. During the 1965 baseball season, players’ caps read “BJ” for Burrell Joint, but the school soon simply was known as Burrell.

Judge Burrell’s maternal grandfather, Jeremiah Murry, is the man for whom Murrysville is named.

Related:

• Part 1: Remember When: A-K Valley high schools got their names in some interesting ways

President Franklin Pierce named Judge Burrell to serve in the Kansas Territory in 1855. He returned to Greensburg after suffering from laryngitis and fever, where he died on Oct. 21, 1856, at 41.

Fox Chapel Area

In 1831, German immigrant John Fox came to the area and farmed land around what is now Faith United Methodist Church.

His daughter, Eliza, donated land inherited from her father to the Methodist Protestant Church to build a “chapel.”

Fox Chapel Area High School is not in Fox Chapel Borough. It’s located in O’Hara Township. The high school site was once Rodgers Field, the first airport serving the Pittsburgh region.

Freeport Area

What we now call Freeport originally was called Todd’s Town after founding brothers William and David Todd.

After selling lots on Water Street, David Todd declared that property owners who had boats, rafts and other rivercraft would be free of port charges, known as a “free port.”

The borough was chartered in 1833, and, as schools were built, a community school district was formed and later served Buffalo and South Buffalo townships.

As of 2016, however, none of the four Freeport Area School District buildings were actually in Freeport Borough.

Apollo-Ridge

Apollo originally was known as Warren when settlements began in 1816. When the post office was established in Warren, officials said mail was being confused with a town of the same name in Northern Pennsylvania.

In 1848, Dr. Robert McKissen suggested the name be changed to Apollo, the Greek god of music, sunlight and prophecy. The need for a high school eventually arose, and a four-room schoolhouse was built in 1876.

The original Apollo Area High School was built in 1931 and served students from Apollo, North Apollo and Kiski Township.

Elders Ridge was settled by Robert Elder in 1786. He called the settlement Elders Choice. Elder died in 1790, and his son, James, took over the family farm and renamed the settlement Elders Ridge.

As the Indiana County community grew, the Elders Ridge Academy was formed in 1847. It was succeeded by the Elders Ridge Vocational School in 1914 and became a high school in 1937, serving Young Township and a portion of Black Lick Township in Indiana County.

In 1969, the school districts merged to form Apollo-Ridge.

After all these years, it’s strange to consider the school might have been called Warren-Choice.

Kiski Area

While the school was being built, students at Vandergrift and Bell-Avon high schools who were on track to being Kiski Area’s first graduating class in 1963 voted on a name, mascots and colors.

The winning choice was Kiski Area Cavaliers, with Navy blue, gold and white colors. The other option was Van-Avon Vikings, with red and blue colors.

Pine-Richland

The school district was formed in 1956 and, for a while, was known as the Babcock School District.

Pine Township was named for the abundance of pine trees along Pine Creek and was settled by Thomas Rodgers in 1796.

In 1871, West Deer Township ceded land for a new municipality. Farmers were having success with the fertile soil in the area and complained to West Deer supervisors that they gave away “rich land.”