Dorchester Times: Dorchester Alumnus Roger Schmidt Passes At 83

Sunday, February 9, 2020

Dorchester Alumnus Roger Schmidt Passes At 83

Roger Dean Schmidt, a 1954 graduate of DHS, passed peacefully into the Lord’s presence on Monday, Jan. 27, 2020. An only child, he was born on Feb. 24, 1936, in Lincoln, to Dorchester's Linus and Viola Schmidt.

He met Dorothy, his wife of 64 years, at a high school band clinic, as they both played the trombone.

Out of high school, Roger enlisted in the Navy and served as a radioman aboard the USS Bexar. He and Dorothy were married June 1, 1955 at Bethlehem Lutheran Church in Crete. Their marriage was blessed with two sons and a daughter. After the Navy, they lived and worked in Gothenburg, Nebraska, where Roger served as a Nebraska State Highway patrolman, and Dorothy was a wonderful mother and homemaker.

In 1965, he began a new career as manager of Howell Lumber Company in Cozad, Nebraska. In 1983, the wanderlust hit, again, and Roger and Dorothy moved to Missoula, Montana to open a Nutri System Weight Loss Center. Success there eventually led to the opening of another center in Bozeman, Montana. In 1984, they sold their businesses and moved back to Nebraska to care for their elderly parents. For the following two summers, they experienced a working vacation in Yellowstone Park. They camped at Grant’s Village near Yellowstone Lake and worked during the day and had many happy memories of fishing in the evenings.

They continued living in Lincoln. Although Roger was retired, he kept busy in a home-based business he named Xtra images. He and Dorothy loved to travel and had many fun adventures with friends and family over the years. Roger’s final earthly home with Dorothy was at Savannah Pines Retirement Community, where they were embraced with love and support. Roger was the sparkle in his family’s eyes and the love of Dorothy’s life. His unassuming way of engaging friends and strangers made so many good things happen around him.

Roger is survived by his wife Dorothy; son Galen (Pam) of Grand Coulee, Washington, grandchildren, TJ, Lucas, Maggie, and Dustin; son Corey (Joni) of Rapid City, South Dakota, grandchildren, Kyle and Paul; daughter Diana (Bob) of Lincoln Nebraska, grandchildren, Calli and Briar, great grandchildren, Natasha, Natalia, Falcon, Ezra, Addison, Torbin and Harrison. A memorial service was held Jan. 31, 2020 at 11:00 A.M. at Messiah Lutheran Church in Lincoln.

Online condolences may be left here.

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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."