Dorchester Times: Dorchester's Fall Festival Appears to Be Returning, Thanks to Museum Volunteers

Tuesday, July 12, 2022

Dorchester's Fall Festival Appears to Be Returning, Thanks to Museum Volunteers

We've received unconfirmed reports that the Saline County Historical Society is planning to host a fall festival in Dorchester in late September.

If true, it would be very big news for the area community. After all, fall is a time of celebration, appropriate in this part of the country.

Some of our readers may recall that in the late 1970s, the Village of Dorchester held its own fall festival, an idea conceived and organized by school administrators and educators and town leaders.

Dorchester's autumn celebration was complete with a parade, kid activities, performances, and seasonal food, like kettle corn and caramel apples.

The Dorchester area needs more community events to get everyone together again -- and get us physically talking to one another once more -- not just taking verbal shots at others or gossiping via electronic screens.

Of course, Crete started its Great Pumpkin Festival a few years ago, and we encourage Dorchester residents to support that wonderful event.

But there's plenty of appetite for another fall festival that focuses on traditions of the past, as well as our agricultural roots. It sounds like the Saline County Museum volunteers have that in mind, according to an email shared with our staff.

In the late 1970s, Dorchester school leaders helped bring about the town's fall festival as a way to unite the entire community and school.

Now, in 2022, perhaps the Dorchester Community Foundation Fund, business owners, church leaders, and Dorchester School personnel can plan activities to support the museum's festival, while adding activities of their own.

Doesn't a Dorchester fall festival sound nice? It's an idea whose time has come -- again.

4 comments:

AnonymousAugust 23, 2014 at 7:15 PM
A fall festival for Dorchester would be a great idea! Hopefully,there are some civic leaders who would step forward and organize one before any of the surrounding owns come with such an idea. Just one way of attracting folks and vendors to Dorchester. Cook off's of
some type, best baked pies, cakes, etc with a small entry fee and proceds going to a charity of some needed type in Dorchester. Highly
decorated with fall colors, pumpkins, bales of hay, corn stalks, etc. Competitions for small children like apple dunking, etc. Have local law
enforccment set up a DARE program booth to educate children/adults of the dangers of drugs, alcohol, etc. Make it both a fun and educational time. Contact local HS graduates in surrounding areas so that they might desire to return. (Duane Wheeler)
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AnonymousAugust 23, 2015 at 4:54 PM
We just got back to Lincoln after visiting the Dorchester Cemetery. On our way home we drove through Dorchester, there were around 75-100 motorcycles coming into mainstreet from off the Hi Way and entering the West side saloon. So it is possible to get throngs of people from around the state to attend your festivies. Just go for it, do it up big and ADVERTISE!!
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AnonymousAugust 23, 2015 at 7:20 PM
Go for it! This could be a good opportunity for the village of Dorchester to make some money. They Legion Club could sell Yum Yums and beer, the new bakery could sell homemade apple and cherry pie with icecream, hot coffee, hot chocolate, etc. A bake sale could be held. Lots of decorations and lots of Advertising would bring lots of people into your village. If I was younger and lived closer, I would be right there to help with this endeavor. Everyone loves Fall Festivals!!! GO FOR IT!!
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AnonymousAugust 24, 2015 at 2:07 PM
I love the idea of a fall festival! I know a couple people who love all the ideas on this blog, and would love to help out, but where do you even start? A Dorchester re-vitalization board needs to be made so the people that are eager for change can help make it happen. Or if there is such an organization, how do you get involved?
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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."