Dorchester Times: Czech Days This Weekend

Wednesday, July 30, 2008

Czech Days This Weekend

As the first weekend of August approaches, so does the Wilber Czech Days Festival -- perhaps Saline County's most notable event.

Our readers in Wilber tell us that town officials have spent the past few days preparing for the 2008 National Czech Festival, which will be held this Friday, Saturday and Sunday (Aug. 1, 2 and 3).

Every year at this time, Wilber swells to more than 50,000 as folks come from miles around to celebrate their own Czech ancestry or to pay tribute to some of the county's early pioneers. The community of 1,700 has been the Czech capital of Nebraska since 1963 and of the United States since 1987. The festival itself began in 1962.

This year, Czech Days kick off Friday at 5 p.m. with activities such as the Accordion Jamboree, Wilber Czech Dancers, and the Children's Parade.

On Saturday morning, the day's events start with the Duck and Dumpling Run at 7 a.m. Throughout the rest of the weekend, you can enjoy activities for all ages such as the Art Show, dance contest, Czech dinners, museum tours, quilt show, Czech heritage demonstrations, and the sounds of various polka bands.

The parade starts at 2 p.m. on both Saturday and Sunday. The Miss Czech-Slovak U.S.A. Queen Pageant begins at 7 p.m. on both Saturday and Sunday at the Outdoor Theatre. The Czech Historical Pageant is held on both Friday and Saturday evenings. Other activities include the polka mass, talent contest, Czech Museum, kolace eating contest, dancing and much more.

For more information and a full listing of this weekend's activities, visit http://www.ci.wilber.ne.us/.

5 comments:

AnonymousJuly 30, 2008 at 5:36 PM
Many thanks for the article on the Wilber Czech Festival and the picture of the late Irma Ourecky. This will be the second Czech Days without Mrs "O", formerly Irma Freeouf and 1930 graduate of Dorchester High School.(She lived on the second floor in a home in Dorchester with five other girls while attending school.) As I write this note, I am drinking a Pilsner and dreaming of kolache that can only be found in Saline County.

Thank You(Děkuji)
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AnonymousJuly 31, 2008 at 9:44 AM
Roll out the pevo!
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AnonymousJuly 31, 2008 at 12:30 PM
Thats the difference between czechs and germans ............. czechs are crazy enough to hold their parties in 110 degree heat ................... we germans are smart enough to wait til October!
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AnonymousJuly 31, 2008 at 1:16 PM
Yes, but the pivo taste better when it's 110 degrees!
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AnonymousJuly 31, 2008 at 10:17 PM
To Cynical Richard,

Yes, but we Czechs have more fun!
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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."