Dorchester Times: NEWS ROUNDUP: One Reader's Wish; DHS Journalism Students Qualify For State

Friday, April 7, 2017

NEWS ROUNDUP: One Reader's Wish; DHS Journalism Students Qualify For State

Here's what's trending in the Dorchester area...

One Reader's Vision For Our Main Street: This week, a reader sent us the picture to the right. She wrote: "If I could restore Dorchester's main street, this is what it would look like." She says the photo was taken in Lincoln, and according to a Facebook commentator, these particular buildings are in the Union College area on 48th Street. We like this reader's vision and wanted to share it with all our readers.

Longhorn Journalists Headed To State Competition: Dorchester just keeps building on its storied reputation for being a journalism training ground. Congratulations go to the following DHS journalism students who qualified to compete at Nebraska's State Journalism Competition: Brittney Zoubek in yearbook feature writing, yearbook sports feature writing, and yearbook theme copy writing; Makenna Bird in yearbook feature writing and yearbook sports feature writing; Michelle Kotas in yearbook theme copy writing and advertising; Zoe McKnight in sports/action photography; and Breanna Muff in news/feature photography. In addition, the team of Zoubek, Bird and Kotas qualified in Yearbook theme development. This is Zoubek and McKnight's third time of qualifying for state, and Bird's second. They are advised by Mrs. Sandy Severance. A big thumbs-up to these budding journalists.

Saline County Museum Keeps Expanding In Dorchester: The Friend Sentinel reports that a new building is going up at the Saline County Museum in Dorchester. The story quotes Saline County Historical Society President Judy Rada as saying that this new building will be the museum’s 12th since it was established in 1956. The new building will serve as a research station for the museum’s large obituary archive and other records, and the rest of the space will likely be used for storage. "The museum opened for the 2017 season on April 2 and features new items donated, including a scrapbook of school pictures collected by Bernice Filipi, a cement block maker, and a doll house on loan from the Nebraska State Historical Society based on the Kiddle House in Friend." The story notes that more than 1,000 different people and entities have donated at least one item to the museum.

Dorchester Alumni Golf Tourney Set For June 3: The fourth annual DHS Alumni Golf Tournament is scheduled for June 3 at the Friend Country Club. Reservations are needed by May 19. Four-person teams may enter for $160, or single players can enter for $40. T-shirts are an additional $15 per person. For more information, contact Brent Zoubek at 402-946-2781 or bzoubek@dorchesterschool.org.

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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."