Dorchester Times: News Round-Up: Hoffman Leads Neb. Jr. Legion Auxiliary; Foundation Plans Golf Event

Sunday, June 26, 2016

News Round-Up: Hoffman Leads Neb. Jr. Legion Auxiliary; Foundation Plans Golf Event

It is a busy week in Dorchester as the buildup begins towards the July 4 celebration. Here's what's trending in Dorchester:

Dorchester's Hoffman Is President Of Nebraska's Jr. Legion Auxiliary: Dorchester continues to produce impressive upcoming female leaders. Dorchester's Daisha Rae Hoffman has been elected to serve as president of Nebraska's American Legion Auxiliary Honorary Junior Department. The group convened last week in Kearney. In April, Dorchester's Carly Rains and Allison Wiles were elected as officers for the District 11 Jr. Legion Auxiliary. Clarissa Bors of Dorchester, a 2016 DHS graduate, has just concluded her term as the national American Legion Junior Auxiliary historian. In 2013-2014, Bors was the Nebraska president of the Jr. Legion Auxiliary.

Community Foundation Plans Aug. 21 Golf Fundraiser: The Dorchester Community Foundation Fund is planning a Golf Tournament fundraiser for Aug. 21, 2016, at the College Heights Country Club in Crete. The Foundation is seeking sponsors who would like to donate prizes for each of the nine holes. If you are interested in donating or sponsoring a hole, please contact Linda Easley at (402) 641-0564. Meanwhile, the Times has learned via an e-mail that the Foundation successfully raised its needed funding for the new cemetery directory in just over four months. Impressive work by this group and the folks from all over the country who financially support it.

Joyce Karl Retiring From DPS; New Superintendent Begins Next Week: An e-mail to the Times confirms that longtime Dorchester School secretary Joyce Karl, a 1969 DHS alum, is retiring from DPS after 34 years in the front office. A retirement celebration was held at City Slickers last month. We're also told this is the final week for DPS Superintendent Mitch Kubicek, who is taking a job at Milford Public School after eight years at Dorchester. Incoming Superintendent Daryl Schrunk will begin his duties next week, we are told. He most recently served at the Columbus Lakeview Community School district and has 13 years of experience as a Nebraska school administrator.

Precipitation Possible This Week: Dorchester and much of the rest of southeast Nebraska could used some moisture. It looks like our area has a good shot at getting some, with meteorologists at AccuWeather placing the chances as high as 60% tonight through Tuesday, and somewhere between 25% and 40% through Thursday. See the latest Dorchester forecast here.

No comments:

Post a Comment

Village Dweller checks all reader comments to determine if they are appropriate for print.

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."