Dorchester Times: Community Garage Sales Coming June 14

Saturday, May 3, 2008

Community Garage Sales Coming June 14

The communities of Dorchester and Friend are teaming up to co-host a community garage sales on Saturday, June 14.

Event organizers say the garage sale weekend is the perfect opportunity for area residents who want to save some money on school clothes and other items, and for residents who need some extra income in this time of record fuel prices.

Dorchester residents are urged to start planning now. The Friend Sentinel is running an advertising special. For $12, garage sale hosts will get a classified ad of 20 words or less and your address posted on a map that will run in the June 11 issue.

The Dorchester Times will also run a list of garage sale addresses in both Dorchester and Friend. Addresses, along with dates and hours of the sale, should be sent to dorchester.times@gmail.com no later than June 10.

According to Carol Olson, president of the Dorchester Area Community Association, this as a community wide

event. Individuals, organizations, classes and businesses are encouraged to participate. Local entrepreneurs such as Avon or Mary Kay dealers -- or local crafters or antique merchants -- may want to consider working together for a sidewalk sale.

Athletic teams and other organizations may want to consider using the weekend as a fundraiser. West Side Saloon might consider hosting a luncheon special or the Dorchester Grocery might offer a brown bag lunch.

"This is a chance for Dorchester to show off what we have to offer," Olson said. "Let’s clean up our yards, pick up the litter and be proud of where we live."

3 comments:

AnonymousMay 3, 2008 at 11:27 PM
At last....peace in our lifetime! I knew détente could be achieved. It's good to see Friend and Dorchester cooperating. Now if only the Dorchester Times and the Crete News could settle their feud.
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AnonymousMay 5, 2008 at 10:08 AM
I think this is a good event, but think how much money we would all save if we quit buying that chinese junk!
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AnonymousMay 6, 2008 at 2:05 PM
Garage Sale forms are available at Sheryll's Westside or the Village Office. You have until May 28th to sign up your sale or event. Drop off the form & $12.00 at the Village Office to get your event location & description printed in the Sentinel flyer.
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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."