Dorchester Times: To Grow, Kansas Towns Give Away Free Land

Tuesday, November 24, 2009

To Grow, Kansas Towns Give Away Free Land

Reader "90s Grad" sent us a link to a USA Today story that we thought should be shared with other Times' readers.

In Ellsworth, Kansas -- a town of 2,900 with one grocery store, one stoplight and no mall, no fast food and no movie theater -- free land awaits those who agree to build a house. "Got three kids in school? OK, that's worth $3,000 toward a down payment. Need jobs? We'll help you find them. Still not sure? Come visit, we'll show you around."

One former Louisiana family interviewed by USA Today say crime and poor schools drove them from Baton Rouge to Ellsworth, which they say "has everything you could want." "It's quiet. You don't have to worry about your kids. Very low crime rate. Lots of recreation."

The story continues: "The proactive mind-set here and in at least five other Kansas towns that give away lots to lure new residents is one wrinkle in a new economic development strategy sweeping across rural America. The goal is to reverse decades of population loss from the decline of small family farms and businesses, expand the tax base, keep schools from closing and preserve a way of life."

"The new mantra is don't waste time and money trolling for a major employer; instead, build one family at a time. Encourage small-business start-ups and develop aggressive local leaders. Fight 'brain drain' by reaching into high schools and finding students willing to return after college. Nurture them with internships or hitch them to a business owner looking to retire. Ask seniors to will 5% of their estates to the town they love to endow economic development. Preach entrepreneurship and the promise of the Internet economy."

"(E)conomic gardening is affordable and can unite a town. ... Ord, Neb. has made seven small-business loans from a 1-cent sales-tax fund."

See the Ellsworth, Kan. recruitment Web site by clicking here.

2 comments:

cynical richardNovember 24, 2009 at 6:53 PM
100 years ago you got a 180 acres for free .......................................... now all i get is one stinking lot ......................................... must be inflation ..............................
ReplyDelete
Replies
AnonymousNovember 29, 2009 at 10:44 AM
Sounds like a good ideas. Something that we should look into. We are close enough to Lincoln and other towns that people could get jobs in, but how can we get our town board to look into this. Anyone have any ideas?
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."