Dorchester Times: Remembering Dorchester Natives Mildred Brodt, Kenneth Moneypenny, Dick Sehnert

Sunday, October 4, 2020

Remembering Dorchester Natives Mildred Brodt, Kenneth Moneypenny, Dick Sehnert

Today, we remember three Dorchester natives who recently passed.

Mildred (Freeouf) Brodt: Mildred was born Oct. 7, 1918 and grew up with three sisters and a brother on her parents’ farm (Stephen and Albina Zajicek Freeouf) near Dorchester. She attended country grade school, graduated from DHS in 1937, attended the UNL and served in the Women’s Army Corps during World War II. She died peacefully at her farm in Fairmont, Minn. on Aug. 31 at the age of 101. She was born during the Spanish flu pandemic, served in the Pacific during World War II, was an early employee of the National Security Agency, and taught school in Minnesota for many years. This World-Herald profile, originally published in 2015, reports on Mildred's talk to history classes at UNO. Here is Mildred's obituary.

Kenneth Moneypenny: Kenneth, 98, a lifelong resident of Saline County, passed away at the Wilber Care Center on Sept. 24. Kenneth was born October 10, 1921 to Chancy and Bessie Moneypenny on the family farm south of Pleasant Hill. He attended District 75 country school near Pleasant Hill and graduated from Dorchester High School in 1939. In WW II, Kenneth was a clerk typist -- the best in his division. After being discharged from the Army in 1946, he returned home and for over 45 years, Kenneth auctioned many livestock and farm sales. After the passing of his first wife, Bessie Hanna, Kenneth met Doris Kastanek and wed Sept. 30, 1997. You would see them driving the countryside in Saline County. Here is Kenneth's obituary.

Richard Sehnert: Dick, 82, of Wildomar, Calif., passed away peacefully on April 8. He was born June 15, 1937 in Dorchester to Henry and Vera (Britton) Sehnert. He graduated from DHS in 1955 and Milford Trade School in 1957. He worked for his dad at Sehnert’s Garage until 1970; he then worked for several other body shops until he opened his own shop in Dorchester in 1974 until 1980, when he sold the shop and went to work for Sherwin Williams Automotive Paint. He had the privilege of serving on the Dorchester Fire Department for 13 years and two years as president of the Chamber of Commerce in Dorchester. He transferred from Dorchester to Riverside, Calif. in 1981. Family and friends are invited to graveside services at the Dorchester Cemetery on Thursday, Oct. 8. Here is Dick's obituary.

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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."