Dorchester Times: NEWS ROUND-UP: Dorchester's 10,000 Shots Club; New Exchange Students

Monday, September 30, 2019

NEWS ROUND-UP: Dorchester's 10,000 Shots Club; New Exchange Students

The 10,000 Shots Club: Dorchester girls' basketball coach Brandon Bruha recently shared a photo of the Lady Longhorns that made the 10,000 Shot Club this summer. (One student is missing in this picture, we're told.) These sharpshooters made 10,000 or more shots from May 1 through September 1. In other words, that is a whole lotta sinkin' going on. Coach Bruha reports that for the first time, he even had two the girls make it to 20,000 shots. The Longhorn girls basketball squad will be ready to shoot lights out this winter, the coach says.

Meet DHS' Foreign Exchange Students: The Friend Sentinel has published a nice story regarding this school year's three foreign exchange students being hosted by Dorchester Public Schools and area families. It takes a lot of courage for a teenager to be willing to travel half-a-world away to experience a new culture, while away from friends and family. So our Longhorn hats are off to salute these new DHS students:

Lene Lovold: From Norway, Lene is a senior at DPS, but will have one more year of school to complete when she's back home in Norway. She enjoys her host family -- the Brent and Lindsey Zoubek family -- but does miss Norwegian food and her cat, Millie.

Alex Ralle: From Germany, Alex is also a senior at DPS and joined a foreign exchange program to gain new experiences by attending an American school. He told the paper: “I’m from a big city, but the small town is nice and friendly.” Ralle plays football for the school and is looking forward to attending a Husker game this fall. His favorite class at Dorchester so far is woodworking; his host family is the Matt and Donna Hansen family.

Carolin Piplits: Carolin is from Austria. She said the landscape of her hometown of Stegerbach is similar to that of the Midwest. “I live in the country and there’s no traffic. It’s similar to back home,” Carolin said. She also enjoys the feel of Dorchester with everyone knowing everyone and showing pride for DPS. She plays volleyball and hopes to participate in track for the school. She likes spending time with her teammates and attending Dorchester football games. Piplits’s host family is the Steve and Sarah Vyhnalek family. “I love talking English and I love being here,” Carolin said.

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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."