Dorchester Times: Looking Back: County Fair Caused Tensions Between Towns

Sunday, July 13, 2025

Looking Back: County Fair Caused Tensions Between Towns

It's county fair time again -- an annual gathering that is enjoyed by many in our surrounding area. Click here for this year's schedule, which begins Sunday, July 14 and lasts through Sunday, July 20.

But decades ago, the fair was a source of tension in our Saline County community.

According to a Times' reader, Saline County’s first fair was held in October 1872. At that inaugural event, there were 280 entries and 700 in attendance.

The earliest Saline County fairs were held in Crete, in an area near present-day Crist Auto Body on the west end of town. Key attractions back then were horse races and orators. Dorchester’s Ed McIntyre was treasurer of the fair board. In fact, nine of the judges at that first fair in 1872 were from Dorchester.

By 1887, the fair was reported "better than ever." Unfortunately, receipts were not enough to pay expenses.

Meanwhile, Dorchester was busy preparing to host an area reunion of Civil War veterans. By May 1888, Dorchester leaders were so optimistic about the preparations that "a number of citizens from the vicinity" went to a meeting in Crete to propose moving the county fair to Dorchester.

The Dorchester Star reported that "after ridiculing Dorchester in every conceivable manner for insinuating such a thing as having a fair, the meeting adjourned to see if Crete could raise $2,000 to keep it there."

Dorchester's June 1888 veterans' reunion was a huge success. There were grandstands, platforms, pavilions and tents and a crowd "estimated between 1,500 and 15,000." (Yes, that's a big gap in the estimate.) By July of 1888, Dorchester's W. P. Thompson purchased the ground in northeast Dorchester where the reunion was held. Soon after, the parcel came to be known as Thompson’s Rodeo Grounds.

Meanwhile, back in Crete, the September 1888 County Fair was fraught with problems. The 1889 county fair was held in Wilber. After that, Crete and Wilber alternated for several years until 1900.

There were no Saline County fairs held again until 1925. Friend hosted a variety of fairs and racing meets during this time, and also hosted a Junior Fair from 1919 to 1921.

The Saline County Fair was revived in October 1925 on Linden Ave. in Crete. The following year, there were exhibit tents at Tuxedo Park. Gradually, special show buildings were erected at Tuxedo. The Thompson ponies from Dorchester provided rides and shows, and rural schools built special floats for parades.

The rest is history.

*** Fair Highlights From Years Gone By ***

In the 1930s and 40’s, Lillian Vlcek (Rezabek), Bertha Dusanek (Zak), and Jerry Pracheil were rural students winning prizes for posters and penmanship. Harold Krivohlavek and Rudolph Freeouf showed 4-H livestock. Mrs. Albert Boden and Mrs. Stanley Nohavec brought embroidered pillowcases, and later still, Dorothy Feeken entered the hog calling contest.

There’s a photo at the Saline County Museum of the Dorchester Chamber of Commerce parade entry. Herman Schultz, Mike Broz, Ed Spinar, Bill Sanburn, Leonard Pechoucek, Harry Spacek, and John Kenny donned fake moustaches and derby hats, while Frances Spacek and Merle Schultz stand by with long black dresses and Japanese fans. A 1929 Buick pulled a trailer for the musicians, and they all smiled for photographer.

In 1963, it was reported that Anton Tesar drove a 1917 Buick parade entry. The Buick had "9,000 miles on it and original tires."

3 comments:

AnonymousJuly 20, 2016 at 11:50 AM
Isn't it funny how history lives on or repeats itself? Example: Crete ridiculing Dorchester.
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AnonymousJuly 20, 2016 at 6:30 PM
I would be very interested in the Civil War reunion. Are there any records of the reunion? If so, where are they housed???
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cynical richardJuly 20, 2016 at 9:57 PM
................I miss the good ol days ................. when carnies gave me two rides for the price of one ......................................
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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."