Dorchester Times: NEWS ROUND-UP: DHS Football Season Ends; Community Foundation Dinner is Nov. 14

Sunday, November 1, 2020

NEWS ROUND-UP: DHS Football Season Ends; Community Foundation Dinner is Nov. 14

DHS Falls to Red Cloud in First Round of State Playoffs: The Longhorns 2020 football season came to a disappointing conclusion Friday evening, Oct. 30, as DHS fell to Red Cloud in the first round of the Nebraska playoffs for six-man football. The final tally was 50-36. With the game tied 20-20 late in the second quarter, Red Cloud scored 22 straight to put the game out of reach. Blake Hansen threw for 254 yards and four touchdowns to lead the Longhorns. (See the Hastings Tribune summary of the game.) Fans in Dorchester, while disappointed with the loss, say they are impressed by the team's progress from 2018, which marked the first time many Dorchester boys had played competitive tackle football.

Community Foundation Fundraiser Dinner Set for Nov. 14: On Saturday, Nov. 14, from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m., the Dorchester Community Foundation Fund will hold its pre-Thanksgiving Windsor Loin/hamburger feed at the Dorchester Legion. Both dine-in and to-go orders are available. If you want to pick up your meal, call in advance to 402-641-0564. This is a free-will offering to raise money for interactive smart boards in DPS classrooms. Donations are accepted anytime; checks can be made payable to the Dorchester Foundation and mailed to: Peg Bergmeyer, 101 Washington Ave., Dorchester, NE 68343.

DHS Alum Gene Sehnert Passes: On Oct. 28, Dorchester native and DHS graduate Gene Sehnert passed away at age 91. Sehnert was the son of Sehnert Garage owners Henry and Vera Sehnert. After working as a for his father for a number of years at the Ford garage in Dorchester, Gene went on to owned and operate Sehnert Welding in Lincoln for 44 years. He is survived by his wife Marilynn, his two children, daughter Jackie (Tom) Lawrence, son Tod (Deb) Sehnert, is brother Jim, 3 grandchildren, 2 great grandchildren, nieces and nephews. See the full obituary.

Dorchester Native Ella Karpisek Passes: Ella Karpisek, 99, of Wilber, passed away on Oct. 22 at the Wilber Care Center, where she had resided for almost 15 years. She was born on January 28, 1921 to Eman and Mary (Kohout) Sysel on a farm near Dorchester. She attended Country School District 71 through the eighth grade and then attended Dorchester High School. See the full 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."