Dorchester Times: DHS Alumni Banquet Set For May 29

Thursday, April 29, 2010

DHS Alumni Banquet Set For May 29

The DHS class of 1990 and the DHS Alumni Association will present the 2010 DHS Alumni Banquet on Saturday, May 29. Make

your plans now to get caught up with friends and classmates.

The event will begin at 6 p.m. at the school. Doors will open at 5 p.m. for those who would like to see the new school. The banquet will feature Windsor Loins, as classes who graduated in years ending will "0" will be honored.

Tickets are $16 per person. Extra donations can be given to the DHS Alumni Association or the Dorchester Alumni Association Scholarship Fund. Mail checks (made payable to the "Dorchester Alumni Association) and reservations to: DHS Alumni Association, P.O. Box 247, Dorchester, NE 68343.

Deadline for reserving your ticket is May 19. Special events are also planned at Joe's Place, Ben's Iron Grill and, on Sunday morning, at the Dorchester Methodist Church.

6 comments:

AnonymousApril 29, 2010 at 10:08 AM
I see Dorchester and Wilber organize their alumni banquets in the same manner. (i.e., the 20 year class plans the event) It wasn’t always done this way. However, I like the change…especially since I graduated in
l980. :)
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AnonymousApril 30, 2010 at 9:35 AM
I graduated before you, 1980 graduate, and as long as I can remember we have always had the 20 year class do the banquets. Nothing new! Sorry!!! My class had a blast doing it and I think it is a great way to get classes back together for a while.
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AnonymousApril 30, 2010 at 2:17 PM
I never thought I'd see one one–upmanship when it came to alumni banquet planning!
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AnonymousMay 19, 2010 at 7:54 AM
Perhaps 1980 graduate only graduated from DHS and didn't attend or live in the area all or most of his/her life. If they did, and, took interest in school activities, they would know that the 20 year class plans the all school alumni banquet. It's been that way as long as I remember, which is going back to the 1950's.
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AnonymousMay 19, 2010 at 10:47 AM
Thank you poster May 19, 2010 7:54 AM. You always make me feel better. By the way, I am the first poster.
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A Friend from WilberMay 22, 2010 at 7:25 PM
Perhaps the first blogger is not a DHS graduate. She may be a graduate of Wilber, 1980. Then her statment would be correct. It's only been within the last 10 years that Wilber decided to have the 20 year class plan the banquet. Until then, an alumni committee planned the event.
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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."