Dorchester Times: Happy Thanksgiving From The Times

Tuesday, November 21, 2023

Happy Thanksgiving From The Times

Several years ago, the Times received an e-mail that we felt compelled to share with all of our readers. Today, it is reprinted here with the permission of the author.

From the staff of the Dorchester Times, a safe and happy Thanksgiving!

*****

Sweet home Dorchester! Oh sweet Nebraska! On this Thanksgiving we have so many things to be grateful for.

You never really know how amazing something or someplace or someone is until you no longer have it or them in your daily life. I lived away from here for several years and during that time I reminded myself almost daily of the things and the people I missed.

On this Thanksgiving, I will once again take time to give thanks for those things that make life worth living. They are:

1.) The bountiful fall harvest.

2.) My small town and the feeling of community that we're all in this together.

3.) A peaceful main street I can walk with no fear of violence.

4.) Mom-and-pop businesses and no big box stores.

5.) Our Dorchester school and the wonderful students and teachers.

6.) Small town chatter, even the gossip.

7.) Farmers, hunters, people of commerce, and our community elders (the producers and providers).

8.) Not being honked at in your car or truck when you're at the one and only red light.

9.) The smells of home, including a wood burning stove or fireplace and the crisp Midwest air this time of year.

10.) Pumpkin pie, homemade jelly and all the great local baking.

This is a good start. Oh yes, I am also thankful for my great-grandparents who came to Dorchester to start their families. It is because of them that Dorchester is my home.

Sincerely,

Name Withheld

Mother, Wife and Farmer

2 comments:

William BradfordNovember 25, 2020 at 9:49 PM
Socialism sucks. I killed the Mayflower Compact because I knew socialism/communism is a recipe for disaster long before Crazy Karl Marx was a sperm cell in his granddaddy's dreams. You need to have incentives to produce and contribute to society. Modern day Americans, your economic system is part of your long history. You kill it, you kill your country. Happy Thanksgiving.
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AnonymousNovember 25, 2021 at 9:51 AM
Former President Donald Trump issued a Thanksgiving Day message, telling Americans "do not worry, we will be great again."

Trump issued his comment as progressive lawmakers remain focused on passing $2 trillion in social spending and climate legislation amid rising inflation, and on a partisan House select committee investigating events surrounding the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.

The country also is dealing with a surge of migrants at the southern border, critical race theory affecting school curricula, and recent high-profiled trials concerning fatal shootings with racial implications. Additionally, China and Russia have taken steps that seem to threaten U.S. allies (Taiwan, Ukraine).

"A very interesting time in our Country, but do not worry, we will be great again — and we will all do it together,” Trump said in a statement released Thursday morning by his Save America JFC.

"America will never fail, and we will never allow it to go in the wrong direction. Too many generations of greatness are counting on us. Enjoy your Thanksgiving knowing that a wonderful future lies ahead!"

The former president's comments came following recent polls that show him defeating President Joe Biden in a 2024 rematch.

Politico on Tuesday reported Trump was leading in states he lost to Biden in 2020. The report said that of likely voters in 2024, Trump "led Biden in Arizona by 8 percentage points, Georgia by 3 points, Michigan by 12 points, Pennsylvania by 6 points and Wisconsin by 10 points."

Numerous polls also have found that Biden’s approval rating has plummeted since late August, around the time of the U.S. troops withdrawal from Afghanistan.
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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."