Dorchester Times: NEWS BRIEFS: 'Friends Of Marvin Weber' Plan Saturday Cleanup

Thursday, April 16, 2009

NEWS BRIEFS: 'Friends Of Marvin Weber' Plan Saturday Cleanup

'Friends Of Marvin Weber' To Conduct Hwy. 6 Cleanup Saturday: Next month, the DHS Class of 1959 will gather at the DHS Alumni Banquet as the honor 50 year class. Marvin Weber -- a member of the Class of ’59 -- passed away in July 2007 after several years of enduring the difficulties of poor health and multiple sclerosis. Because Marvin spent the majority of his adult life farming west of Dorchester along Highway 6, and because he loved farming and the rural way of life, “Friends of Marvin Weber” will gather this Saturday, April 25, at 9 a.m. at mile marker 279 on Hwy. 6 west of Dorchester (the junction of Hwy. 6 and Hwy. 33) to conduct a liter pickup of the roadside for two miles to Dorchester. Anyone who would like to join us in remembering Marvin may park at the office of Weber Feedyards west of Dorchester on Saturday morning. The group will have all the equipment needed for the litter pickup.

DHS' Boller Signs With Dana: The Omaha World-Herald reports that DHS senior and volleyball standout Wendy Boller has signed her letter of intent to play volleyball at Dana College. Boller was named to the Lincoln Journal Star's 2008 and 2007 Class D1 Volleyball Honorable Mention lists. Our congratulations for her DHS volleyball accolades and we wish her well in her collegiate career.

Get Paid For Recycling Your Old Fridge Or Freezer: Dorchester residents who want to get rid of old refrigerators may now do so through the Nebraska Public Power District's recycling program. The NPPD program offers free pick-up of old refrigerators and freezers, a $35 rebate check and proper disposal. Retiring a second refrigerator or freezer can save up to $100 a year in energy bills, NPPD spokesman Kenneth Young said in a news release. To schedule a free pick up, call (866) 444-9160 or visit www.appliancerecycling.com. Customers should be sure to have a utility bill in hand when scheduling. Dorchester is one of several participating in the program, as are DeWitt, Friend, Seward and Wilber.

3 comments:

West SiderApril 16, 2009 at 6:31 PM
Good to see the memorial activity planned for Marvin Weber. That would have put a big smile on his face.
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AnonymousApril 17, 2009 at 10:28 PM
school board meeting was last monday night, where are the minutes?
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AnonymousApril 18, 2009 at 8:31 AM
You could always donate your appliances to Cynical Richard. I'm sure he has plenty of room out in the pasture to put that stuff.
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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."