Dorchester Times: NEWS BRIEFS: Lawver Rocks Districts, Weber Gets His M.D.

Thursday, May 14, 2009

NEWS BRIEFS: Lawver Rocks Districts, Weber Gets His M.D.

Dr. Jason Weber Earns Degree From UNMC: 2001 DHS grad was one of 693 University of Nebraska Medical Center students to graduate earlier this month. Commencement was May 1 in Omaha for students receiving degrees in dentistry, dental hygiene, medicine, nursing, pharmacy, graduate studies and the allied health professions. Weber graduated with distinction. He will be conducting his residency at Georgetown University Hospital in Washington, DC. Our congratulations to Jason for this outstanding accomplishment.

Lawver Rocks D-1 District Meet: DHS junior Karmen Lawver is headed to the Nebraska State Track & Field Meet following an awesome performance at Wednesday's Class D-1 District Meet held in Auburn. Lawver threw the shot put 38'-6 1/4", bettering her closest competitor from Pawnee City by more than 4 feet. Lawver then threw the discus 122'-0", beating her nearest competitor from Meridian by nearly 11 feet. We want to wish Karmen the best of luck as she heads to the state meet in Omaha.

Kotas Named Butler Scholarship Recipient: The Friend Sentinel reports that DHS senior Ashton Kotas was recently selected as one of only five recipients of the 2009 Senator Hugh Butler Academic Leadership Scholarship. To be eligible for this full-tuition scholarship, students must have a very high GPA and score 30 points or higher on the ACT. We salute Ashton for this impressive academic honor and the example she provides for Dorchester's younger students.

7 comments:

DC HuskerMay 14, 2009 at 7:14 PM
Congratulations, Jason. You will be completing your residency at an excellent institution.
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DC HuskerMay 16, 2009 at 7:43 PM
Belated congratulations to Ashton Kotas. I just realized that I went to school with your mother!
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AnonymousMay 17, 2009 at 2:55 PM
It would be nice if you mentioned the parents' names. I do believe they had something to do with the successes of their children....
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AnonymousMay 17, 2009 at 11:02 PM
Waahhhhhhhhhhhhhh!
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AnonymousMay 18, 2009 at 1:56 PM
Good job, Ashton and Karmen. You two deserve a lot of praise for your hard work and dedication.
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AnonymousMay 19, 2009 at 2:16 PM
Good Luck at State, Karmen!!!
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AnonymousMay 24, 2009 at 7:42 AM
Congratulations to Karmen on her 2 gold medals at state.
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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."