Dorchester Times: Dorchester's Jan Stehlik Passes At 85

Sunday, December 16, 2018

Dorchester's Jan Stehlik Passes At 85

Former Dorchester Public School art instructor, community leader, quilt maker, historian, and longtime Dorchester area resident Jeanette Lou (Jan) Stehlik passed away Dec. 14, 2018 at Tabitha in Crete after a struggle with dementia. Jan was born on March 15, 1933 in Beatrice, Nebraska to Louis E. Selk and Bertha (Arnold) Selk. Her father was a lumberyard manager in Plymouth, Neb. at the time of her birth. He moved to the Sack Lumber Co. in Dorchester, and Jan met her future husband, Leonard Stehlik, at the Dorchester elementary school. Jan’s father managed several lumberyards and Jan also attended school in Meade, Kan., Lincoln Northeast High School, and graduated from Chadron High School in 1951.

Jan attended the University of Nebraska for two years before she was reacquainted with Leonard when she was on the State 4-H Camp Staff and Leonard was a 4-H leader. Their first date was to the Saline County Fair. Leonard and Jan were married on August 22, 1954 at Redeemer Lutheran Church in Lincoln, Nebraska. They lived at Camp Carson in Colorado, where Leonard was stationed in the Army. After Leonard was discharged, they settled at the farm where Leonard was born north of Dorchester, where they lived together for 60 years and raised four sons and a daughter.

In 1971, Jan completed her UNL education and began teaching Art at the Dorchester Public School the following year. She retired 25 years later. Jan was an active member of Bethlehem Lutheran Church in Crete, Nebraska. She served as the church secretary, taught education classes, sewed Lutheran World Relief quilts, and provided the church with many beautiful banners. She was the State Women’s Chairman of the Nebraska Farm Bureau and wrote “The View from the Kitchen Window” for a Farm Bureau publication. She also wrote “The Country Quilter” column for The Crete News and broadcast “What’s Doing in Dorchester” for KTAP radio. In 1986 she was selected as the Outstanding Nebraska 4-H Alumni. She was very involved in the Dorchester community, serving on the Centennial History Committee, Community Improvement Committee, and was the Vice President of the Chamber of Commerce. She was a member of the Jolly Doers Extension Club for over 60 years and was a member of the Seward Co. Historical Society.

Jan was affectionately known as “The Quilt Lady” and sewed for her family as well as quilts she used in quilt lectures and classes. She won many quilt contests and her work was pictured in quilt magazines and books. She published a book featuring her original designs and presented a research paper to the American Quilt Study Group in 1990. She was a member of the Blue Valley Quilt Guild, the Lincoln Quilters Guild, and the Nebraska State Quilt Guild where she was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2018.

Jan is survived by her children: Dan of Curtis, NE; Brent (Janice) of Lincoln, NE; Eric of Dorchester, NE; and Bonnie (Mark) Wagner of Petersburg, NE; 6 grandchildren: Melissa Partaka (Chris) of Capac, MI; Adam Stehlik of Omaha, NE; Tyler (Niki) Stehlik of Kramer, NE; Aaron (Bethany) Stehlik of Oxford, MA; Eleanor Wagner of Spalding, NE; and John Wagner of Petersburg, NE; brother Howard Lou Selk of Kenmore, WA; sister Arlene Lou Souders of Wilmington, NC; sisters-in-law Velma Hansen of Dorchester and Rose Marie Heckman of Mill Valley, CA; nieces, nephews, family and friends.

She was preceded in death by her parents; husband Leonard; son Linden; sisters-in-law Letitia Selk and Darlene (Gene) Easley; and brothers-in-law Jim Souders and Wayne Hansen. Memorials can be made to Lutheran World Relief and the Dorchester Community Foundation.

Visitation will be at Kuncl Funeral Home in Crete on Tuesday, 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. Funeral services will be at Bethlehem Lutheran Church in Crete on Wednesday, 10:30 a.m to 11:15 a.m. Online condolences for the Stehlik family may be left here.

2 comments:

UnknownDecember 24, 2018 at 2:43 PM
While I never met Jan, we corresponded when she assisted research into my relatives on the Stehlik and Vajgrt side of the family. Leonard would have been my 2nd cousin 1x removed. Marie Stehlik and Frank Vajgrt would have been my great grandparents. Lewis Vajgrt their son my grandfather. She helped me with information and I visited the Charlie Vajgrt farm and the cemetery in 2009 and wasn't able to meet with Jan at the time. She enjoyed research and I appreciated her giving me information that helped me also contact some Vajgrt-Stehlik relatives in California. I am sorry for the family's loss.
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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."