Dorchester Times: Journal Star Highlights Efforts On Pvt. Havlat Memorial

Friday, January 9, 2009

Journal Star Highlights Efforts On Pvt. Havlat Memorial

Two veteran reporters from the Lincoln Journal Star have issued their mea culp

a to

Dorchester.

In today's edition of the LJS, journalists Nancy Hicks and JoAnne Young note that they were incorrect a few weeks ago when they reported that no Nebraskans had asked the state highway commission to name any highways in recent years.

In their "Around the Rotunda" column, Hicks and Young write: "The Dorchester American Legion has asked three times that Nebraska Highway 33 between Dorchester and Crete be named after Charles Havlat."

The column goes continues: "Havlat, who died in the process of freeing a monastery in Czechoslovakia, was the last solder confirmed killed in the World War II European front. In 2006, the Highway Commission took no action on the request, thus rejecting it, and suggested naming a city street, park or having an historical marker or plaque displayed in an appropriate location to honor Charles Havlat, according to minutes of that meeting.

"The Dorchester Legion is now going to the state Historical Society to request a historical marker be placed at the Saline County Museum in Dorchester, according to Legion Commander Larry Kaspar. Charlie Havlat’s brother, Adolph, is writing the 180-word history allowed on the marker. The Dorchester Area Community Foundation is sponsoring and raising money for the project, which will cost about $5,000, Kaspar wrote in an e-mail."

We at the Times are glad to see the Journal Star devoted time and space to the memory of Pvt. Havlat and efforts of current Dorchester leaders.

To see the Times' June 2007 story on Pvt. Havlat and reader comments, click here.

4 comments:

AnonymousJanuary 9, 2009 at 6:06 PM
I am a fourth-generation Saline Countian whose mother's family emigrated from Bohemia in 1870. I had never heard of Private Havlat until I read your blog last year. Private Havlat's life came full circle in that he died in his ancestral homeland. It’s a moving story.
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AnonymousJanuary 10, 2009 at 6:07 PM
Radio Praha has a great broadcast about Private Havlat. The broadcast can be heard by using this link. (http://www.radio.cz/en/article/66298) The story is in English and features Adolph Havlat. It's good to see that the state of Nebraska is receiving international pressure to erect a memorial.
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AnonymousJanuary 12, 2009 at 5:46 PM
I was just watching the movie "Waterloo Bridge" with Robert Taylor and Vivien Leigh. If the state of Nebraska can name a highway after Robert Taylor, certainly the state can name a highway after Private Havlat. (Taylor was born in Filley and attended Doane College. He also visited Wilber frequently to see his foster parents, the Shimerdas.)
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AnonymousJanuary 15, 2009 at 3:30 PM
The Dorchester Area Community Foundation (DACF) is pursuing raising funds towards the Historical Marker. Donations for this project may be directed to DACF board members Joyce Karl or Peg Bergmeyer.
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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."