Dorchester Times: NEWS ROUNDUP: 40 Years Ago, DHS Industrial Arts Building Got The Go-Ahead

Wednesday, January 18, 2017

NEWS ROUNDUP: 40 Years Ago, DHS Industrial Arts Building Got The Go-Ahead

Dorchester School Board in 1977.

* DHS Industrial Arts Building Turns 40 Years Old: Records show the DHS industrial arts building is about to hit the big 4-0. It was in 1977 the DPS Board -- comprised of Bob Kasl, Wayne Hansen, Phil Weber, Chuck Bolton, Kathy Palky, and Alan Slepicka --- voted to give the OK for construction of a new building dedicated to industrial arts. Forty years later, many areas of the nation, including our own, suffer from a serious shortage of skilled workers who specialize in trades such as welding, plumbing, automotive repair and electrical. That's due, in part, to school officials and parents who have de-emphasized and even ridiculed the importance of vocational education. Yet have you noticed how many unskilled, four-year-school graduates today are working retail or unemployed, saddled with thousands in student loan debt and living at home? Something's broken.

* DHS Girls Are Contenders In Class D-2 Ranking: The Lincoln Journal Star has the DHS girls basketball team listed as contenders in the statewide Class D-2 rankings for this week. The Lady Longhorns have won the last seven of eight games, handily defeating High Plains, East Butler and Sterling in recent days. Under the tutelage of head coach and Dorchester alum Brandon Bruha, DHS' record now stands at 8-5 overall. Up next is Shelby-Rising City in an away contest Thursday. The Crossroads Conference tournament begins in York on Saturday and continues into the following week.

* DHS Students Will Have School Feb. 15: DPS will be hosting the Crossroads Conference Junior High and High School Quiz Bowls on Wednesday, Feb. 15. The original DPS calendar had listed no school for K-9 on Feb. 15. However, this was changed at the January school board meeting to no school for K-8. Grades 9-12 will be in school from 8:10 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. on Feb. 15, so high school students can work on annual assessments.

* Senator Ebke Joins Legislature's White Guilt P.C. Club: Years ago, it was fairly easy to distinguish the malcontents among us. One way was to watch certain white people, who thought they were well educated, get their panties in a bunch over Columbus Day. That's the day that most of us recognize the trials of the Italian explorer who wrote the first chapter of the New World by advancing western civilization. (No, not all civilizations evolved equally.) But in an era of collective white guilt, often fueled by public education and media, it has become more difficult to pinpoint the malcontents, especially if you're not on social media. Thanks to legislative bill 485 offered by liberal state lawmaker Patty Pansing Brooks of Lincoln (a well-to-do, white attorney), it just got easier. Pansing Brooks hopes to kill Columbus Day in Nebraska and instead create a state holiday to honor Ponca chief Standing Bear and other Native American leaders. Six affluent, white senators have cosponsored the bill, including state Senator Laura Ebke of Crete. Despite his faults as judged by 2017 standards, Columbus took on the jabbering naysayers of his time with courageous action and in doing so, changed the world. He lived in the reality of his era, not one of theory, philosophy or bill writing. In this time of much talk, we could use more like him now. Yep, Columbus Day -- and you thought they had important work to do at the Capitol.

12 comments:

AnonymousJanuary 18, 2017 at 9:18 AM
I find the manner in which this article is written to be a bit shallow myself. It seems as though it is more of a chance to act as though you are above others with differing beliefs (there seems to be a lot of that going on these days).
On the other hand, oh the atrocities; to think that public education influences the people of today's world to do their research on what truly happened in historic events. Christoper Columbus has faults when judged by not only today's standards, but he also had faults when being judged by his peers at the time of his rule. There were many many reports and complaints against him of tyrannic rule.

His era was also during the renaissance, which just so happens to be a time that was alive with theory and philosophy. As for bill writing, they did not have democracies to vote on bills per se, but rather had decisions forced upon people by the Kings and Queens of the time.

If only there were more leaders like Columbus in the world. More tyrants, that is, such as Kim Jung or Fidel Castro or Adolf Hitler for example. Not attempting to add to the list of those who chastise Donald Trump, but it sounds as though you are hopeful that upon his inaguration he will begin to torture people for exercising their first amendment rights or petty crimes and then proceeding to parade them through the streets.
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AnonymousJanuary 18, 2017 at 9:42 AM
No more votes for Ebke from this conservative! This is not meant to disparage Chief Standing Bear who was a fine example of a true Nebraskan, but leave Columbus alone and do something constructive for Pete's sake!
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AnonymousJanuary 18, 2017 at 12:18 PM
I see laura ebke is not running again!
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AnonymousJanuary 18, 2017 at 5:43 PM
Go Lady Longhorns!!!!
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AnonymousJanuary 18, 2018 at 10:21 AM
I'm so glad someone is running against Ebke. He has my vote!
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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."