Dorchester Times: News Briefs: Bruha, Cochnars Receive Honors

Tuesday, March 18, 2008

News Briefs: Bruha, Cochnars Receive Honors

Bruha Receives All-State Basketball Honors: The Lincoln Journal Star has named DHS junior Brandon Bruha to its honor roll for Class D-1 boys basketball. Bruha received honorable mention for his efforts on the basketball court this season. We at the Times tip our hats to Brandon.

Cochnars Inducted Into Czech Musicians Hall of Fame: Seven musicians were recently inducted into the local Czech Musicians Hall of Fame during a ceremony and accordion jamboree at Ron’s Tavern in Milligan. Included in the short list of inductees were the late Alfred and Teresa Kohl Cochnar of Dorchester. The Cochnars founded the popular U-Neta Orchestra in 1938, playing in many states and across Nebraska. Alfred played saxophone, clarinet and trombone and handled bookings. Teresa played lead trumpet and wrote arrangements. The orchestra had 40 years of consecutive bookings until 1978. Later in life, Teresa played the Polka Mass at Sacred Heart Church in Crete and directed and arranged music for area choirs and rural schools. The Czech Musicians Hall of Fame was created in 1999. A plaque with the engraved names of inductees is mounted in Ron’s Tavern.

5 comments:

AnonymousMarch 18, 2008 at 3:02 PM
They should have never quit playing polka on the radio ............... bring back KTAP in Crete........
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AnonymousMarch 19, 2008 at 3:48 PM
Nice going Brandon. By the way I heard Dorchester school hired a former Husker wrestler to be the head wrestling coach. Dorchester may no longer be known as a basketball school.
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AnonymousMarch 21, 2008 at 8:37 PM
yea.....but can he teach
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AnonymousMarch 22, 2008 at 8:43 PM
Oh brother. You can't satisfy some people. I think he's a third grade teacher if I recall. He can probably handle it. In fact more male teachers are needed in this day and age of single parent households.
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AnonymousMarch 23, 2008 at 5:06 PM
Congrats Brandon Bruha!! Also, the Cochnar family must be very proud of their family honor. It is always great to see people of our community recognized for the hard work and talents.
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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."