Dorchester Times: Get Your Last-Minute Christmas Gifts In Dorchester This Year

Tuesday, December 18, 2018

Get Your Last-Minute Christmas Gifts In Dorchester This Year

With Christmas nearing, why not consider buying gift certificates from City Slickers, East Side Bar & Grill, Donna's Hair Creations, The Well, Barley Specialties, Farmers Cooperative gas station, Tysers Repair and Auto Sales, and other Dorchester area businesses?

As one reader e-mailed us recently, it just makes sense to buy Christmas gifts locally instead of purchasing "the cheap, imported Chinese junk that adds to America's trade deficit."

Or maybe you just want to avoid the crowds and online scams (and ID theft).

Other ideas include visiting Hedgehog and Hubbies Antique Shop on the west edge of town. The antique shop has cool vintage items. Maybe open a savings account for a grandchild at First State Bank. Or help a local farmer and buy a corn burning stove.

Finally, during this time of giving and goodwill towards others, don't forget the importance of contributing to area philanthropies and charitable groups, or volunteering to help with local projects and organizations.

Consider sending some well-deserved funds to the Dorchester Community Foundation Fund. As we've reported for some time now, the Foundation's next project on the list is a splash pad for the Dorchester City Park. Your donations to the the Foundation are tax deductible. Make checks payable to: Dorchester Community Foundation Fund, c/o Peg Bergmeyer, 101 Washington, Dorchester, NE 68343.

Also, think about sending a donation to the Dorchester Methodist Church. Or perhaps the Dorchester Volunteer Fire Department. Or volunteer to see how you can improve the appearance of Dorchester's Main Street and the downtown business area.

The Times welcomes your ideas on how to make the Christmas season just a little better in our community.

1 comment:

AnonymousNovember 25, 2017 at 10:10 PM
Shout out to Carol Olsen and Peg Bergmeyer for cleaning up the median this weekend! What dedicated town volunteers.
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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."