Dorchester Times: Former Dorchester Area Resident John Springer Passes

Wednesday, January 6, 2016

Former Dorchester Area Resident John Springer Passes

The Albany (Oregon) newspaper reports that John David Springer, a former resident of the Dorchester area, passed away Saturday. Springer was born Nov. 7, 1926, on a farm north of Milford, Nebraska, to Jake and Lillie (Stauffer) Springer. He went to his heavenly home after a short battle with cancer on Jan. 2, 2016.

John attended a country school as a boy and later graduated with the class of 1944 from Milford High School. He accepted Christ as his personal savior and was baptized at East Fairview Mennonite Church. John was united in marriage to Margie Kremer on March 2, 1947, and they made their home on a farm in rural Dorchester, Nebraska, where he enjoyed farming and running a small dairy for a number of years. John had a gift to fix anything that was broken.

In 1979 John and Margie headed west and made a new home in Lebanon. While in Oregon, John was employed at Farwest Farmers Seed Company and later Servco Plumbing, Heating and Cooling. In his retirement years he loved working for Howard Ropp operating a harvester and harvesting pumpkins.

Survivors include his wife, Margie; children and spouses Randy and Donna Springer of Lebanon, Cindy and Ken Richins of Keizer, Tim and Jeanie Springer of Dorchester, Nebraska, Rhonda and Don Bayne of Albany, and Lisa and Les Morton of Albany; 11 grandchildren and 10 great-grandchildren with the 11th due soon.

John was preceded in death by his parents and brothers Larry and Robert.

At the time of his death he was a member of Fusion Faith Center in Albany.

John donated his body to Western University of Health Sciences for teaching and scientific research.

A memorial service will be at 2 p.m. Jan. 12 at the Fusion Faith Center, 241 First St. W., Albany.

Memorials have been established by the family for Water-4-Haiti Ministries.

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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."