Dorchester Times: Dorchester Community Foundation Update On 'Welcome' Signs

Tuesday, November 27, 2012

Dorchester Community Foundation Update On 'Welcome' Signs

The Dorchester Community Foundation (DCF) would like to thank everyone that came to the foundation's chicken supper earlier this month and who gave or sent donations for the community's new "welcome" signs.

According to inside sources with the DCF's board, there were some farmers who donated grain, as well as people who donated time and/or supplies. The foundation heard from many alumni, as well.

Without such generous community support, and support from Dorchester natives across the country, the project could have never become a reality, said one board member. "It would still be a dream," the DCF board member said. "Instead, we have almost reached our goal and wanted to thank you all for supporting Dorchester."

Some of the Dorchester High School alumni that sent donations also included some of their Dorchester history, according to the DCF, which will be sharing these notes throughout the month of December.

Here is one from Lois Nichols Jurgens, DHS Class of 1949:

Dear Dorchester Community Foundation:

Thank you for the information about the Dorchester Community Foundation fund. I am proud to say Dorchester is my hometown.

My grandparents, Orton and Mary Nickols, were pioneers to the area. My grandfather came to Nebraska in a covered wagon from Illinois. My grandmother was born in a sod house by the Big Blue River. By trade, my grandfather was a painter and carpenter. He was also a sexton of the Dorchester Cemetery for many years. He helped dig graves. The summers were spent mowing the cemetery -- with a push mower.

My mother, Alice Nichols, was a telephone operator and Avon sales agent. She was a graduated of the then-"new" school (1927 DPS building). I graduated in 1949. After working at Pospisil's Grocery and Citizens State Bank, I attended Doane College. From there, I went to North Platte and onto Colorado. But I always remember my roots and the town that shaped my values.

Please keep me informed on the foundation.

Thank you.

Sincerely,

Lois (Nickols) Jurgens
Estes Park, Colorado

As reported earlier, the Dorchester Community Foundation is raising funds to finalize the town's new welcome signs. These signs will feature the community's new logo, which will also be on the village's new water tower -- to be completed yet this year or early 2013.

The concrete and brick welcome signs will be rather substantial in size, measuring 8' tall (pillars) and 20' wide. They will stand on an elevated landing measuring 6' by 24'. Plans are to have them lighted, as well. (See our Aug. 30 story on the new signs.)

You can contribute to this project by making checks payable to Dorchester Community Foundation Fund.

Donations should be sent to:

Mr. Dale Hayek
652 County Road 1200
Dorchester, NE 68343

The Dorchester Community Foundation Fund is a non-profit subsidiary of the Nebraska Community Foundation so all donations are tax deductible.

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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."