Dorchester Times: NEWS BRIEFS: Kids' Halloween Party Oct. 24 At Tabor Hall

Friday, October 17, 2008

NEWS BRIEFS: Kids' Halloween Party Oct. 24 At Tabor Hall

Tabor Hall Plans Halloween Party For K-6 Students: The Times has learned that a Halloween party is planned for Dorchester K-6 students this Friday, Oct. 24, from 5-7 p.m. at Tabor Hall, five miles south of town on County Road 1400. All Dorchester elementary school students and their families are invited for food, fun, and games. There will be a costume contest with prizes, as well as contests with awards. Hot dogs and chips will be served. Following the Halloween party, children may return to the school for movie night starting at 7 p.m. Parents with questions should call Laura Sysel at (402) 946-6961.

DVFD Hosting Safe House On Halloween: As the trick-or-treaters hit the streets again this year, members of the Dorchester Volunteer Fire Dept. will again be hosting a Halloween Safe House. The DVFD Safe House will be open for the kids on Oct. 31 from 5 p.m. until 8:30 p.m. at the Fire Hall.

DVFD Fire Hall Marker Is Latest Main Street Improvement: Area residents traveling Dorchester's Washington Avenue have been treated to an impressive sight as a new stone and brick marker stands proudly in front the Dorchester Fire Hall. Members of the DVFD want to thank Klein Construction for erecting the new marker, according to DVFD Secretary Bret Cerny. The marker, which recognizes the year in which the DVFD was established (1914), was built using the Ed Smith Memorial Fund, Cerny told the Times.

5 comments:

AnonymousOctober 18, 2008 at 12:10 AM
The halloween party at tabor hall is a great idea and I'm glad to see such positive activity for the kids. Thanks to those who made it possible.
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AnonymousOctober 18, 2008 at 8:12 PM
The new Fire Department sign is sharp!

Good job, guys.
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AnonymousOctober 18, 2008 at 9:01 PM
Who paid for that sharp new sign?
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AnonymousOctober 19, 2008 at 12:04 AM
The marker was built using the Ed Smith Memorial Fund, Cerny told the Times.
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AnonymousOctober 20, 2008 at 3:46 PM
I heard that the little lady that lived in the green house on the north side of town left a lot of money to the school and the FD.. She is the one who had all the cats and they later burned the house...

I like the signs I wish they would put them up when are your coming into Dorchester as well.
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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."