Dorchester Times: Longhorn Teams Stampede At Meridian

Saturday, January 10, 2009

Longhorn Teams Stampede At Meridian

The DHS Lady Longhorns, thanks to balanced scoring from their players, managed to win comfortably at Meridian Friday night, despite the frigid temps.

The DHS girls, now 7-1 on the season, beat the Mustangs 49-39 in a match-up that the Lincoln Journal Star had cited as a key game. The Lady Longhorns led by only three points after the first period and by five at the half. But Class D1's No. 4 team, according to the Omaha World-Herald ratings, kept on the pressure in the third quarter, holding Meridian to only seven points and giving DHS some breathing room.

Leading the way in scoring for Dorchester were Wendy Boller and Molly Pracheil, both with 9 points, followed by Wells 4, Havlat 7, Spanyers 8, Springer 4, Lawver 8.

Meanwhile, the DHS boys improved to 6-2 as they beat Meridian, 60-55. The win was good enough to bolt the DHS boys to No. 21 in the Nebraska School Activities Association's point standings out of more than 60 Class D1 teams.

(CORRECTION: This Tuesday, Jan. 13, both Longhorn teams take on rival and Class C2 opponent Friend at Friend. The Friend boys are 2-9 on the season, while the Lady Bulldogs are 5-6. Our post originally stated the game was a home contest and we regret the error.)

3 comments:

AnonymousJanuary 10, 2009 at 5:30 PM
is this game tuesday the 13th here or at friend.? says something different in 2 different places
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AnonymousJanuary 11, 2009 at 1:11 PM
Is the game on Tuesday in Friend or Dorchester? I thought that the schedule said away (in Friend)?
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AnonymousJanuary 12, 2009 at 5:41 PM
I work with a gal from Meridian & she said how pleased they were that so many Dorchester fans supported their soup supper. She said they only had 3 bowls of soup left. Just wanted you to know people notice the good as well as the bad.
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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."