Village Board Member Finds Century-Old Letters In Dr. Panter's Former House

The Friend Sentinel has published a great story about Dorchester resident and village board member Sarah Wenz and her home on main street. 

As the Sentinel explains, Wenz inherited the house from her father, the late Bill Wenz Jr., after he passed away in October 2017. The Wenz family is only the second family ever to own the home, after Bill purchased it from the Panter family. 

The home, which is thought to have been built in 1890s, was the former residence of Dorchester's well-known Dr. Robert C. Panter, the town's physician for much of the first half of the 1900s. Dr. Panter is buried in the Dorchester Cemetery.

Ironically, like Wenz, Robert Panter's father, Samuel G. Panter, was also on the Dorchester Village Board of Trustees -- and is one of the founders of our community.

The Sentinel reports that Bill Wenz spent years refurbishing the house in the 1980s and '90s. When Sarah Wenz was doing her own improvements and updates just last year, she found over 200 letters and some postcards from the Panter family.

According to the letters, which were often written on American Red Cross stationary, Panter was a doctor in the first World War, stamp marked from many European cities. Most of the documents are in good condition and are all addressed to a “Mrs. R.G. Panter” from 1914-1918. 

Wenz will donate the letters to the Saline County Historical Museum by January.

Read the Friend Sentinel's story.