Dorchester Times: MVPs For Alumni Tourney Weekend

Sunday, March 23, 2014

MVPs For Alumni Tourney Weekend

Another DHS Alumni Tournament weekend has come and gone. Unfortunately, none of the Times staff was able to see the tournament action this year, but we heard there were several exciting games, including a few buzzer beaters that kept fans on the edge of their seats.

Alumni weekend is an important weekend that brings together the DHS alumni brotherhood (and sisterhood) for fun, laughs and conversation. It also is important to our main street and business community, as well as the DHS athletic program.

So this year, we are naming the 2014 DHS Alumni Tournament MVPs -- the sponsors of the tournament:

Ben's Iron Grill 2

Heath Sports and Tees (Crete)

Stutzman Digging

Farmers Cooperative

First State Bank

Spring Creek Repair and Farm Supply

Runza (Crete)

BZ Construction

Clark's Lawn Service

City Slickers Bar and Grill

Papik Seeds

Holly Well Drilling

Barley's Specialties

Rains Simmentals

Weber Feedyards, LLC

Velder's Taxidermy

Novak Auction Service

Without these sponsors, the tournament would not be possible. Nor would adequate money be raised to benefit current and future Dorchester students.

Be sure to thank these sponsors and patronize their businesses.

We also want to name the volunteers of the Dorchester Community Foundation as MVPs due to their hard work. This year's steak and hamburger feed -- held Saturday night -- was the most successful feed yet. All the Times staff were there, and we know firsthand that this event was made possible by selfless volunteers who gave up their Saturday to benefit our community. We even heard reports of Foundation volunteers cleaning up the community hall and Legion building after midnight on Sunday morning. That's dedication!

Congratulations to all the players, fans and alumni who made it back for this year's tourney. We're grateful for your dedication to Dorchester.

2 comments:

AnonymousMarch 23, 2014 at 9:58 PM
I want to thank all the foundation members who were serving and cooking and cleaning, too. Awesome community service. For that matter, awesome community. I wish my town did things like they do in good ol dorchester!!!!
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AnonymousMarch 23, 2014 at 10:33 PM
Pump, pump it up.
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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."