Dorchester Times: Oregon Paper Profiles Saline County's Altman, Wilber

Friday, May 7, 2010

Oregon Paper Profiles Saline County's Altman, Wilber

The Eugene, Oregon newspaper has profiled Saline County native Dana Altman, the new basketball coach at the University of Oregon. The Register-Guard's profile of Altman is titled "The man from Wilber," and the story features a west coast reporter's observations of our county seat -- including the Wilber Czech Museum and the Czech Bakery, the grain elevator and the railroad tracks, and the traditional Czech polkas.

In the article, Altman, who the article says "made his name coaching 90 miles away at Creighton University in Omaha," is hailed as the hard-working, genuinely nice local boy who made really good."

The article delves deep into Wilber, calling it "Altman’s hometown, population 1,761, (that) is a square mile of good life in the midst of corn country (and wheat, and more and more these days, soybeans). ... It’s also the self-billed 'Czech Capital of the USA,' and there’s no reason to doubt the claim. Roughly half the population is of Czech descent; a few decades ago, it was 90%. The town’s annual Czech Festival — first weekend in August — draws as many as 50,000 people for roast duck and dumplings, polka music and traditional dancing and, well, lots of beer."

The article continues: "The second of four children born to Lyle and Barb Altman, Dana played football, baseball and basketball in his backyard, and the games could get intense. Dana was a fiercely competitive, highly active kid who hated to lose. 'His desire to win always overshadowed everything,' says Russ Rezny, a friend and classmate."

2 comments:

A Friend from WilberMay 7, 2010 at 1:35 PM
I went to high school with Dana. I saw this article, but did not forward it to the Times because Dana is not a Dorchester native, and I was unsure if it would be accepted for publication. On a side note, I was living in Little Rock when Dana decided not to accept the head coaching position at the University of Arkansas. The Razorbacks were deeply disappointed. By the way, Wilber is no longer the self-proclaimed Czech Capital. In 1987,Wilber was named "The Czech Capital of the U.S.A." by a proclamation signed by President Ronald Reagan.
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afMay 7, 2010 at 4:17 PM
Dream big, kids. With hard work and persistence, they can come true.
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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."