Dorchester Times: Web Site Touts Dorchester's Ghost Sightings

Monday, October 5, 2009

Web Site Touts Dorchester's Ghost Sightings

(This article was originally published on Aug. 5, 2009.) Halloween is near and another Dorchester ghost-

related Web site has been brought to our attention. According to GhostsOfAmerica.com, "Not everyone who inhabits Dorchester is alive." To prove it, the site allows visitors to post stories and photos of their personal encounters with the dearly departed.

Visit the Web site by clicking here. Some of the accounts of Dorchester-area ghost sightings are:

"A young relative died in our house years ago. We have heard a young girl singing during the day. Guests have felt someone staring at them in the night."

"Gilbert's Graveyard, located about 5 miles SW of Dorchester, is a graveyard where lies the Gilbert family who lived as pioneers in the 1890’s. ... A number of strange events have been reported here. Among them, strange noises and the movement of tombstones."

"Reports of figures or shapes moving around in the 2nd floor of the city hall building."

Another ghost-related Web site called Omahaunt.com has a Dorchester listing and features photos from town and surrounding sites.

5 comments:

cynical richardAugust 5, 2009 at 11:43 AM
my wife in the morning ........................ does that count as a scary site? ............................................
ReplyDelete
Replies
AnonymousAugust 5, 2009 at 1:03 PM
Might want to watch out there Richard. We might be seeing your ghost soon.
ReplyDelete
Replies
AnonymousAugust 5, 2009 at 4:44 PM
Interesting to say the least.
ReplyDelete
Replies
AnonymousAugust 6, 2009 at 3:56 PM
I found it to be mostly hooey. Many of the so called land marks do not even exist in the locals cited.

But we must be entertained, correct?

JR
ReplyDelete
Replies
AnonymousAugust 21, 2009 at 2:25 PM
that website is for Dorchester, NE... not Massachusetts
ReplyDelete
Replies

Add comment

Village Dweller checks all reader comments to determine if they are appropriate for print.

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."