Dorchester Times: Former Village Employee Earl Parks Passes At 87

Thursday, March 22, 2018

Former Village Employee Earl Parks Passes At 87

Earl H. Parks, 87, of Beatrice passed away at the Beatrice Community Hospital Sunday morning, March 18, 2018. He was born on March 27, 1930 on a farm near Dorchester to Howard and Olga (Freitag) Parks, graduated from Dorchester High School in 1947.

Earl served his country in the U.S. Army from January 1952 until January 1954. Earl married the love of his life, Karen A. Kenney, on Aug. 24, 1954 and of this union three sons were born, Kenneth, John, and Larry. He had worked on the construction crew, building the CO-OP elevator. He attended Milford Trade School from 1954-1955 where he completed electrical coursework and then went to work for the village of Dorchester as an electrician, town marshall, or anything else that needed to be done. In August of 1962, Earl moved his family to Beatrice and started working for Norris Public Power District for 33 years, retiring May 1, 1995.

He was a member of the United Methodist Church in Dorchester; Lifetime member of the American Legion Club in Dorchester; Beatrice VFW Club and Eagles Club; and longtime member of Hidden Acres Golf Club. Earl was a loving, kind and caring man who enjoyed spending time with his family. He liked to play baseball and softball as a young man, and enjoyed bowling and became an avid golfer.

Survivors include his wife Karen; 3 sons, Kenneth (Brenda) Parks of Crete, John Parks of Beatrice, and Larry (Tracy) Parks of College Station, Texas; 5 grandchildren Jason Parks of Chandler, Arizona, Cameron, Sydney, Shelby and Jacob Parks, all of College Station; great grandson Kyler Parks of Chandler, AZ; and several cousins. He was preceded in death by his parents, father and mother in law John & Bertha Kenney, and great grandson Christian Michael Parks.

Memorial services were today, March 22, at the United Methodist Church in Dorchester with Pastor Paixao Baptista officiating. Burial of ashes were at the Dorchester Cemetery with military graveside services provided by the Dorchester American Legion and Nebraska National Guard.

In lieu of flowers, a memorial has been established to the family's choice with the funeral home in charge. Sign Earl's online guest book and view his video tribute after completed at www.ghchapel.com.

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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."