October 15, 2009

It’s unanimous; new school to be named General Rosecrans Elementary School

By LENNY C. LEPOLA
News Assistant Managing Editor

The roof’s not completely on, interior walls have not been installed, it’s still not quite ready for enclosed winter construction, but school district administrators can order the new elementary school sign.

On Monday evening, members of the Big Walnut Local School District board of education unanimously approved naming the district’s new K-4 elementary school on South Miller Drive in Sunbury after General William Starke Rosecrans.

William Starke Rosecrans was born in a double-wide log cabin in Kingston Township on September 6, 1819. His parents, Crandall Rosecrans and his wife Jemima Hopkins (relative to Stephen Hopkins who signed the declaration of independence) lived on 160 acres on Taylor Run.

Rosecrans eventually attended the military academy at West Point and became a Civil War general.

District superintendent Steve Mazzi said that during the school district’s annual online March Community Survey, General Rosecrans led the list of three names recommended for the new school building.

The name officially adopted Monday evening is General Rosecrans Elementary School. Mazzi said the school would likely be popularly called Rosecrans Elementary.

General Rosecrans Elementary School is located at 301 South Miller Drive, Sunbury.

(10/21/2009)