Dorchester Times: Another Soaker Hits Dorchester Area

Wednesday, July 16, 2008

Another Soaker Hits Dorchester Area

The precipitation keeps coming.

Following the rain that fell last night and in the early hours of this morning, the Times' official rain gauge shows just over 3". Some area farms are reporting more than 5".

Small hail and damaging winds accompanied the rain. Estimates on crop and property damage are not yet available. (*UPDATE: 7/16, 7 p.m.* -- According to the National Weather Service, Doppler radar estimates that 2 to 4 inches fell across much of the area from Milford through Dorchester and Crete. The weather service issued flood warnings for the West Fork of the Big Blue River north of town from Thursday afternoon to Sunday afternoon. Minor flooding is expected. Turkey Creek and small streams south of town and in northeastern Saline County are also above flood level as of this writing. At least two trees fell on vehicles in Dorchester. No one was injured.)

The Dorchester area has received about 4.6" this month and approximately 14.1" since June 1.

6 comments:

AnonymousJuly 16, 2008 at 1:38 PM
the big farmers around me better hurry up and put up another pivot....................
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AnonymousJuly 19, 2008 at 12:14 PM
Hate to be a carping critic, but anyone who saw our streets Wednesday morning and who still says we don't need pavement is either sticking their head where the sun never shines ... or they actually want the town to dwindle away.
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AnonymousJuly 19, 2008 at 2:14 PM
anyone who saw my bank account balance wed. morning who thinks we still need pavement is sticking there head where the sun don't shine or they want to send me to bankruptcy court!
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AnonymousJuly 19, 2008 at 4:37 PM
"People want to be on a team. They want to be part of something bigger than themselves. They want to be in a situation where they feel that they are doing something for the greater good."

-Coach Mike Krzyzewski
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AnonymousJuly 19, 2008 at 7:33 PM
CJ,

I like the quote you provided from Mike Krzyzewski. I still see that spirit of giving in the Midwest and the South. Unfortunately, the sense of wanting to be part of something other than you is not prevalent on the East and West coasts.
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AnonymousJuly 19, 2008 at 8:52 PM
cj, again I agree with you. People do or at least should want to be part of a team, being part of something bigger than themselves. Doing something for the greater good takes more than a large bank account...most important is the willingness TO DO something positive, smiling while doing it. I'm a Duke fan too! Thanks for the positive comment.
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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."