Wednesday, December 18, 2013

This Christmas, Give The Gift Of Dorchester History


Are you searching for a unique, meaningful last-minute Christmas gift? We suggest searching the Internet for items from Dorchester's rich past.

We found this picture of Dorchester's Christian Church, likely taken around 1908, when the church was built on the NW corner of 9th and Jefferson. It included a tank behind the alter, since the members of the Christian Church practiced total immersion for baptism.  From the best we can tell, the 1908 Christian Church in town replaced this one from an earlier era.  

Both postcards featuring the two Dorchester Christian Churches are for sale -- and both are amazingly crisp, clear photographs.

We also found some very unique tokens, which were used by Dorchester retailers as a promotion to lure more customers into the story.  This beautiful brass token was issued by A.W. Simons on Dorchester's Main Street. Simons' drug store operated from 1895 to 1905. It was good for 5 cents' worth of merchandise. Click here to see several similar coins. 

We also found this unique square token -- good for 1 cent in merchandise -- distributed by F.B. Ireland's Grocery and Dry Goods store, which operated in Dorchester from 1900 to 1919.  It was located in the space that currently is home to the community building and American Legion Hall.

Finally, we came across this 2005 Dorchester Public School yearbook.  One member of our staff thinks this was a particularly good year for Dorchester High, for whatever reason.

These items and many others are out there.  We encourage to take a stroll on the Web for items uniquely Dorchester -- and make your loved ones' Christmas something special!

3 comments:

  1. The picture of the Christian church was the second Christian church. Not sure when it was built. My parents rented the parsonage for that church. The parsonage was just west of the church. In the picture you can just see a portion of the parsonage. The church closed while I was in grade school and my parents purchased the parsonage. In about 1946or7 the church was sold to a Mr. Divolky south of town and he tore it down and used the lumber to build a house on his farm. My parents purchased the lot where the church was built and in 1956 they build on the old church basemant. Frank Mariska built the house. After the church was torn down they left the baptism tank sitting on the ground just north of the hole. It was a concrete tank and we kids would fill it with water in the summer time and go for a swim...Guess we all got baptized several times...We also used to catch pigeons in the bellfary. When he pews were taken out, we used to roller skate in the sanctuary. What fun...Those were the days..

    Roger
    Schmidt

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It would have been pretty cool to see dorchester then, with kids roller skating as the chevys and ford fairlanes drove by

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