Dorchester Times: Former Dorchester Resident, School Cook Ellen Vossler Passes At 102

Sunday, January 29, 2017

Former Dorchester Resident, School Cook Ellen Vossler Passes At 102

Longtime Dorchester resident Ellen (Simons) Vossler passed away at the age of 102 in Grand Island last week, on Sunday, Jan. 22. Services were held Thursday. Many Dorchester residents and former DPS students will recall Ellen worked as a school cook for decades.

Ellen was born August 4, 1914 in Walthill, NE to Rudolf and Lizzie (Burger) Wenger. She attended rural school in Thurston County, Neb., attending high school in Walthill, graduating in 1933. She was baptized and confirmed into the Lutheran Church in 1934. She helped her parents on the farm until she started working out cleaning/cooking in Jefferson, South Dakota, where she met Albert Simons. They were married in December 1938. They had 2 children. They made their home on a farm near Jefferson, SD and later in the Sioux City, Iowa area. Ellen also worked as a Nurse’s Aide for several years at the Lutheran Hospital in Sioux City. Albert passed away December 1970.

Ellen met Fred Vossler, Sr. and they were married June 1979 and made their home in Dorchester, until Fred’s death December 2009. Ellen remained in her home until 2010 when she moved in with her daughter in Cairo, Neb. and most recently resided at Wedgewood Care Center in Grand Island.

She loved her family and helping others. She enjoyed sewing, quilting, crocheting and baking bread. Ellen had a great faith and loved the Lord and enjoyed reading her Bible every day.

Ellen was preceded in death by her parents; husbands; three brothers, Sam, Frank and Ruben; three sisters, Susie, Rosa and Nellie; step-son, Fred Vossler, Jr; granddaughter, Suzanne Stuenkel; great-granddaughter, Emily Tharp; son-in-law, Marvin Lang.

Survivors include 2 daughters, Mary Sue (Stuenkel) Lang of Uehling, Neb. and Rose Marie (Charles) Hollingsworth of Cairo; 1 step-daughter Janice (Larry) Casey of Alfred Station, NY; 8 grandchildren; 5 step-grandchildren; 18 great grandchildren; 12 great-great grandchildren 3 step-great grandchildren; and several nieces and nephews.

Memorials are suggested to Trinity Lutheran School, Grand Island, Neb.; Cairo Quick Response Team (QRT) in Cairo, Neb. or to Donor’s choice. Condolences for the family may be submitted online at http://apfelfuneralhome.com/.

1 comment:

AnonymousJanuary 29, 2017 at 5:23 PM
I remember Mrs. Vossler well from the 1980s because she was the one always serving the dessert into the lunch trays!! A life well lived.
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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."