The following sketch on the naming of the school is from the Manual of the Public Schools of the City of Chester, PA, compiled from "standard authorities" and with the assistance of Henry Graham Ashmead, Esq.:

"The Thurlow School is named for John J. Thurlow, who after nearly eighty years of active life ended his days on a farm in the vicinity.

"Mr. Thurlow was born in Essex County, England, February 1. 1795, and died at Cheater, May 15, 1887. He came to America in 1819, and to Cheater In 1823. During most of his life In Delaware County he was a hotel proprietor, but his business activities were chiefly those of a contractor. He was the builder of eleven and one-half miles of the Philadelphia, Wilmington and Baltimore Railroad."