Dorchester Times: NEWS BRIEFS: DHS Girls No. 4 in Omaha World-Herald

Wednesday, January 7, 2009

NEWS BRIEFS: DHS Girls No. 4 in Omaha World-Herald

Lady 'Horns No. 4 in World-Herald Ratings: The DHS girls basketball team is ranked fourth in this week's Omaha World-Herald Class D-1 ratings. The Lady Longhorns (5-1) follow top-ranked Bancroft-Rosalie, No. 2 Humphrey and No. 3 Deshler, who recently beat top-10 Class C-2 Freeman, while narrowly defeating DHS at last week's holiday tourney. Meanwhile, the Lincoln Journal Star has the Lady 'Horns at No. 9. Both Dorchester basketball teams resume action tomorrow, Jan. 8, in a make-up contest at Sterling. On Friday, Jan. 9, the DHS squads battle Meridian in another road contest. The Journal Star touts the Lady Longhorns' contest against Meridian as a "key game" -- while the paper says tomorrow's DHS boys game at Sterling (ranked No. 4 in both polls) is another contest to watch.

Volunteers Needed to Help Area Elderly Apply for Homestead Exemption: The Saline County assessor’s office is looking for volunteers in the Dorchester and Crete areas to help the elderly and other Saline County residents fill out the Homestead Exemption papers for 2009. Those interested in volunteering should contact the Saline County assessor’s office at (402) 821-2588 by January 20. The assessor's office currently has a training session scheduled for Jan. 26 at 1 p.m. in Wilber.

Food Entrepreneur Seminar Offered To Area Residents: For Dorchester area residents looking for home-based-business opportunities, we suggest considering the Food Entrepreneur Assistance Program Seminar. The Food Processing Center at UNL is offering a one-day seminar in Lincoln for all individuals interested in exploring the idea of starting a food manufacturing business. The seminar will be offered on March 9. Pre-registration is required and space is limited. Registration deadline is Feb. 27. Contact Jill Gifford at (402) 472-2819 or jgifford1@unl.edu for more information.

2 comments:

AnonymousJanuary 7, 2009 at 2:23 PM
Good for the ladies but they should know that rankings don't mean a thing unless you play hard and play to win. Here is an example from Class B girls basketball as reported by the Lincoln paper.

The Class B No. 3 Thunderbolts’ full-court pressure defense produced 33 Waverly turnovers in a 76-32 girls basketball victory over the ninth-ranked and previously unbeaten Vikings before an estimated 500 spectators at Bishop Flavin Gym.
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AnonymousJanuary 8, 2009 at 1:36 PM
The Journal-Star has some pretty questionable rankings. There's a 3-4 team in their top ten. Say what!? I prefer the school activities point standings over the newspaper polls. You can't tell me those reporters actually see more than a quarter of the teams they rank!!
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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."