Dorchester Times: Restoration Of 150-Year-Old Saline County Farmstead Begins

Friday, July 24, 2015

Restoration Of 150-Year-Old Saline County Farmstead Begins

WESTERN, Neb. -- Channel 10/11's "Pure Nebraska" TV series reports on the planned restoration of a Saline County pioneer homestead near the community of Western.

According to the story, the restoration is being overseen by owner Kay Kottas, her husband Joe, and cousin Floyd Zabel. The home has been in the family for 150 years.

When they almost lost this piece of history in a flood Kay knew something needed to be done. "We have to do it now, I've always wanted to do it but we came very close to losing it so i really wanted to get it done," said Kay Kottas.

According to Kay, the historical society is helping to find the original foundation of the house since it was moved at one point about 75 feet from its original location.

Kottas says they want to be able to share the history of this one-of-a-kind home with tourists so they can "experience exactly what it was like for the pioneers when they lived here."

"There is no plumbing, there is no electricity. It would just be a really good experience for folks to understand what it was like," said Kottas.

The restoration of the home will take place in four stages and Kottas can't wait to get the fundraising and renovations started. "It's tremendous, we've had a lot of interest already. I'm already finding we have relatives that I've never heard of before, it's great to hear from community members who think this is just a wonderful thing to do," said Kottas.

Floyd Zabel was raised on the farm and sold the farm to the Kottas'.

"When Kay came down, we jumped on the three-wheeler, went up to the pasture and looked at some of the native plants, her excitement grew about owning the farm and her excitement grew about preserving the pioneer history," said Floyd Zabel, previous owner.

Zabel says he can't wait to see Kay's vision plan out. Kottas says she can't wait to share this piece of family history with the community.

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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."