Dorchester Times: Looking Back: Dorchester's Grain Elevators

Thursday, August 2, 2007

Looking Back: Dorchester's Grain Elevators

The grain elevator has always been a staple of our community, even in Dorchester's earliest days. But the elevator has changed a bit over the years -- in both name and physical appearance.

In 1881, when Dorchester was officially incorporated, Dorchester had two grain elevators. The drought of the 1890s, however, reduced that number to just one elevator a decade later. In the late 1910s and early 1920s, soaring land prices and plummeting grain prices brought the expanding farm economy to an abrupt halt. The 1920 Dorchester Farmers Cooperative had an operational loss of $3,203 -- the only year with a net loss in the history of the company.

Despite some lean years, the cooperative survived and later thrived. The 1940s and 1960s brought massive expansion to Dorchester's grain storage facilities.

Today, the elevator and its storage bins dominate the Dorchester skyline. Farmers Cooperative serves as an economic hub for the area, and is comprised of sepearte energy, grain, feed, and agronomy departments. While its corporate office is in Dorchester, Farmers Cooperative owns facilities in 35 other communities, including DeWitt, Milford, Swanton, Tobias, Western and Wilber. Total operating revenues are estimated at $12.5 million, according to the cooperative Web site.

Dorchester's grain storage facilities and farmers cooperative have certainly come a long way. We are proud of the contribution that our cooperative and its producer members make to our town and local economy. Let's not take for granted the struggles endured to get where we are in 2007.

Dorchester's earliest elevators, circa 1885.

The J.R. Clark elevator pictured in 1908.

The fire at the east elevator in the 1950s.

Ariel view of the Co-op, 1950s.

Today's Farmers Cooperative in Dorchester.

3 comments:

Chevy VanAugust 2, 2007 at 4:17 PM
Dorchester is lucky to have such a well-run business to contribute to the local tax base.
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AnonymousAugust 2, 2007 at 8:30 PM
dorchester would be nothing if it wasnt for the coop. they contribute to every business in town. our town would be nothing without it.
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AnonymousAugust 3, 2007 at 3:59 PM
My Dad, Frank Bosak, was very proud of the Farmers Co-op and of what it has become. The growth of the facility began under his managership and continued to the present day. He was especially proud of the farmers that believed in him and in the potential and put up the money to get things going in the late 40's and early 50's.
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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."