Dorchester Times: Spanyers, School Featured In Crete News

Sunday, October 7, 2007

Spanyers, School Featured In Crete News

The Oct. 3 edition of The Crete News features two Dorchester-related stories. We felt both are worth mentioning

to Times' readers who may have not yet read them.

Article one spotlights Dorchester area resident and Saline county treasurer Deb Spanyers and her remarkable efforts to overcome the effects of the West Nile Virus and Guillain-Barre Syndrome. The front-page story recounts Spanyers' rehabilitation efforts, including being honored recently at the 13th Annual Chairman's Goal Awards luncheon at Madonna Rehabilitation Hospital in Lincoln.

Spanyers contracted West Nile after being bit by an infected mosquito in August 2005. Early in her rehabilitation, "holding her head up, dressing, and even eating became the hardest things" for Spanyers, according to the article.

Despite physical and emotional struggles, Spanyers returned as county treasurer in March 2006. Today, she now drives herself to her physical therapy sessions and gets her wheelchair into the car by herself. She credits her daughters, Morgan and Erica, for pulling her "out of the low spots." Spanyers won re-election last November. For more on Spanyers' story, click here.

Another Crete News story, this one on page 3, updates readers on the Dorchester School renovation which was approved 61%-39% last month by school district patrons. Superintendent Don Peiper "guaranteed the new high

school and elementary facilities under (construction) ... will be open for the beginning of the 2008-2009 school year," according to the story.

Construction on the western portion of the project will start yet this fall -- possibly within the next two or three weeks, Pieper said. By early spring 2008, the west side "should be totally enclosed." Demolition of the 1927 building will then go ahead. The new construction -- including new high school classrooms, multi-purpose rooms and administration offices -- will total 33,500 square feet.

2 comments:

AnonymousOctober 9, 2007 at 9:48 PM
Would like to thank Deb and her family for setting such a wonderful example of courage. They are truly a team effort without complaints, just determination, love and smiles.
Congratulations Deb on your award.
ReplyDelete
Replies
AnonymousOctober 9, 2007 at 10:14 PM
I always thought Deb was pretty special - but she is more than just that. She is one tough cookie. This has been a long and difficult road for Deb and her family.
Going through something like this shows what a person is made of. We all need to have that sort of determination. I'm proud to know Deb.
ReplyDelete
Replies

Add comment

Village Dweller checks all reader comments to determine if they are appropriate for print.

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."