Dorchester Times: Thanksgiving 2008: A Reminder To Count Your Blessings

Thursday, November 27, 2008

Thanksgiving 2008: A Reminder To Count Your Blessings

Every now and again, the Times receives an e-mail that we feel compelled to share with the rest of our readers. Today, we received such a note. With the permission of the author, the letter is reprinted below.

This message is especially relevant at a time when the outside world presents so much uncertainty and fear. We hope you will enjoy it as much as we did, and that it will serve as a reminder to count your blessings -- everyday.

Happy Thanksgiving.

"Sweet home Dorchester! Oh sweet Nebraska! On this
Thanksgiving we have so many thing to be grateful for.

"You never really know how amazing something, or someplace,
or someone is when you don't have it or them. I lived out of state for several
years and during that time I reminded myself almost daily of the things I
missed back home and am thankful for.

"On this Thanksgiving, I will once again take time to give
thanks for those things that make life worth living. They are...

1.) The fall harvest
2.) My small town and the feeling of community
3.) A Main Street I can walk with no noise, litter or fear of violence
4.) Mom & pop businesses & no big box stores
5.) Dorchester sports
6.) Small town chatter, even the gossip
7.) Hunters, farmers and our community elders
8.) Not being honked at in your car when you don't run a red light
9.) The smell of a wood burning stove or fireplace
10.) Pumpkin pie, homemade jelly and all the great local baking

"This is a good start. Oh yes, I am also thankful for my
great-grand parents who came to Dorchester to start their
families. It is because of them Dorchester and Nebraska is my
home."

Sincerely,

-Name Withheld
Mother, wife and farmer

5 comments:

AnonymousNovember 27, 2008 at 11:40 AM
What a wonderful tribute to my home town of Dorchester! And what a blessing to read positive comments for once.
We all have many things to be thankful for. Many thanks to the writer of this wonderful letter, it gives us all an opportunity to ponder the good things in our lives.
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AnonymousNovember 27, 2008 at 4:17 PM
AMEN!

JR Wolfe
York
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AnonymousNovember 27, 2008 at 10:58 PM
Being thankful is overrated. So is school psychology.
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AnonymousNovember 28, 2008 at 11:26 PM
It's nice to see someone still takes time to remember how blessed we all are.
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AnonymousDecember 9, 2008 at 5:29 PM
I agree with my friend Dorothy Parker.

This reminds me of my favorite philosopher, Alice Roosevelt. (Daughter of Theodore Roosevelt.)

"If you can't say something good about someone, sit right here by me."
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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."