Dorchester Times: Still-Standing Stone Houses Were Part Of Area's Settlement

Thursday, July 26, 2007

Still-Standing Stone Houses Were Part Of Area's Settlement

Take a drive in the countryside south of Dorchester and it is likely you will spot an old stone house or two, still standing as proudly today as they did a century ago. These structures played a role in the permanent settlement of the Dorchester and Pleasant Hill area.

When the first European settlers came to Saline County in the 1850s and 1860s, lumber had to be brought from Nebraska City -- a trip that could take several weeks. So to build a home, early residents had two alternatives: dugouts or stone houses.

Fortunately for our pioneer ancestors, a vein of limestone ran near Pleasant Hill and Turkey Creek. Quarries and lime kilns could be found throughout the Pleasant Hill precinct, according to the Dorchester Centennial history publication. Some of these quarries, including the one at the present-day Joe Kubicek farm, operated until the mid-twentieth century, when they ceased to be financially viable.

The Sukraw house, Brown house, Pisar house and barn, Freude house and See house were prime examples of this early architecture, which was as practical as it was sturdy.

A map of the stone home locations can be found on page 198 of the Dorchester Centennial history book. We encourage Times readers to explore the living history and heritage of their home area. (Editors Note: Please respect the rights of private property owners and do not trespass. Get permission if you wish to see one of these structures up close.)

6 comments:

AnonymousJuly 27, 2007 at 8:57 AM
Great history here. Good work.
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SaulJuly 27, 2007 at 1:40 PM
I love the photo's of the old homes. I have always wanted to do a series of photographs of abandoned homes. I came across your site on the Bloggers Choice Awards. You can add a brag badge to your blog so that you can collect more votes. The code is on the same page that people can go to Vote For This Site!.
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Village DwellerJuly 27, 2007 at 2:47 PM
Thank you, Saul. We appreciate the compliments.

And no, Tom, we did not nominate our own Web site for that award, either.
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AnonymousJuly 27, 2007 at 4:02 PM
Hey saul

i know of an old school that you could photograph. Better hurry before it is torn down.
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Village DwellerJuly 28, 2007 at 12:00 PM
Note to readers: Please keep comments relevant to the subject matter of the story.

Comments that are not germane to the orignial post may not be published in the future.

Thank you.
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AnonymousJuly 29, 2007 at 1:46 AM
Well, this comment may not be completely "germane", but it does make one point I was trying to make about the school subject. Good construction lasts. The roofs may be long gone, and the families have gone to a better HOME, (I'm speaking of their heavenly one) but the main structure still stands. If they had been kept up, there is no reason those old stone structures could not have lasted hundreds of years.

To Saul.........do that photo shoot! I would like to have some prints of the historic structures of Saline County.

By the way, my grandma was born in the log cabin at the Saline County Museum!!!

Preserve it while you can before the bulldozers show up!

JR Wolfe

PS Kudos on the website!
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Dorchester: A Good Little Family Town

Dorchester, Nebraska (est. population 630) is located in northern Saline county. Close in proximity to Interstate 80, Dorchester is only 25 minutes from the state capital of Lincoln (est. population 250,000) and about 55 minutes from Omaha (metro population 725,000).

Dorchester's median resident age is 37 years. In 2005, Dorchester had a median family income of approximately $35,600. The median house value was about $63,000. About 95 percent of Dorchester residents commute to work via Interstate and highways.

The village has a quality public school, which received a $4.1 million expansion and modernization in 2008; it offers a small classrooms and individualized attention. Total enrollment of grades K-12 is around 230-250 students.

Ancestries of the Dorchester area are primarily German (42.4%), Czech (24.9%), Irish (12.5%), English (5.4%), and Dutch (4.9%).

Dorchester Historical Facts

* On July 4, 1871, the railroad reached Dorchester.
* Incorporated in 1881, Dorchester's population grew from 200 to 500 by 1882.
* In 1882, Dorchester had 90 buildings, 35 of which were businesses or public facilities. Brick buildings lined both sides of Washington Avenue for two blocks.
* Dorchester's longest-running newspaper was The Dorchester Star, which was published until the late 1940s.
* By 1889, Dorchester's population is said to have reached 800, while the town housed an opera house, a two-story brick schoolhouse with a bell tower, and four churches.
* By the 1910s, Dorchester had electricity, a water tower and a fire department.
* Dorchester's main arteries, Highways 6 and 33, were graveled in the 1940s.
* Dorchester's first irrigation well was drilled on Chris Weber's farm and rural electrification was finished following WWII.

A Village with History

Dorchester is one of the "alphabet towns" on the Burlington & Missouri River Railroad line built west from Lincoln. The town site was selected for its pleasant location in the northern part of Saline County, about eight miles west of Crete. This situation is an attractive one, being on the level prairie land, midway between the West Blue River and Turkey Creek. The first named stream is three miles north, and the latter about the same distance south from the town. Dorchester was platted in 1870 and incorporated in 1881. The name "Dorchester" came from either for a suburb of Boston by that name or a town in England. No one is sure. Two of the very first settlers were James Seely and Edward McIntyre, who both made Dorchester their permanent home.

Dorchester: In The Beginning

Here is a look at Dorchester around 1890, less than a decade after its official incorporation, as documented by Andreas' History of the State of Nebraska:
* POPULATION: "About 300, and is made up of a substantial and progressive class of citizens, who are moral and industrious. ... The town grew but very little until the year 1879, for the reason that Pleasant Hill, on Turkey Creek, a short distance south, was the county seat and naturally drew a trade for quite a large scope of country."
* BUSINESS: "The business and professional interests of the town are represented by three general merchandise stores, two drug, one grocery, one furniture, two hardware, and two millinery stores, one bank, two restaurants, two hotels, three livery stables, a post office, one newspaper office, two elevators, two lumber yards, two coal yards, two blacksmith shops, two lawyers and four physicians."
* SCHOOL: "The schoolhouse is a good one. The schoolhouse was built in 1872, since which time the public schools have been continually kept up. The present schoolhouse is 24' x 40' in size, two stories high. The school is graded and consists of three departments. The house is found too small, and arrangements will soon be made to increase its size."
* CHURCHES: "There are three substantial churches."
* HOMES: "The residence portion of the village is made up of neat houses of different styles of architecture, but none of them very large."
* NEWSPAPER: "The Dorchester Star, which was established August 21, 1881, by H. C. Bittenbender, who edited it until January 19, 1882, when he sold it to Ryerson & Bullock, the present proprietors. The Star is a bright weekly paper, five-column quarto, in size, and is Republican in politics."