Dorchester Times: Longtime DPS Teacher Doris Kohout Passes

Friday, February 19, 2021

Longtime DPS Teacher Doris Kohout Passes

Doris Jean Kohout, 90, was born on a farm five miles northeast of Wilber on June 11, 1930 to Edward and Blanche (Koci) Hronik and passed away on Feb. 16, 2021 at the Wilber Care Center.

Her education started at five when she entered first grade at District 4. She only spoke Czech since that’s what her parents spoke at home, but quickly learned English with the help of her Czech teacher. She graduated with the Crete High School Class of 1947. Then Doris attended 12 weeks of summer school at Peru State College and received her teaching certificate and taught for three years. On Nov. 21, 1950 she married Adolph J. Kohout, Jr. at the Grace Methodist Church in Crete. They lived on the farm ¾ mile north of Saline Center Hall. They had two children, Marilyn and Marvin. She returned to teaching in 1957 and continued her education and received her Bachelor’s of Education from Doane College in 1971. She taught twelve years in rural Schools’ Districts 9, 4, 94, 32 and 57 and in 1970 she taught at Dorchester Public Schools as a Kindergarten teacher for two years and 21 years with first graders, retiring in 1993 after a 35-year career.

Doris enjoyed her retirement, working on her family genealogy, sewing and quilting for her family, gardening, especially flowers that would bloom all summer, raising chickens, ducks, geese and even tried raising turkeys. Her pride and joy were her children, grandchildren and great grandchildren.

She was a member of ZCBJ-WFLA Saline Center Lodge #389, receiving her 50-year membership pin in 1991, Saline County Educational Association, Dorchester Education Association, Eastern Nebraska Reading Council, Blue Valley Quilt Guild, and a 4-H leader for many years.

She is survived by her daughter Marilyn (Owen) Jensen and son Marvin (Lorraine) Kohout, four grandchildren, and six great grandchildren. She was preceded in death by her parents, husband Adolph, sister Betty Favre, and brother Robert Hronik.

A visitation will be held Wednesday, Feb. 24 from 1-7 p.m. at Kuncl Funeral Home in Wilber. Family will greet friends from 5-7 p.m. The service will be held the following Wednesday, March 3, at 10:30 a.m. at the funeral home. The service will be livestreamed and can be accessed via the Facebook icon at the bottom of our website homepage. Memorials have been established to the Doris Kohout Memorial Scholarship Fund at the Dorchester Public School. You can leave condolences 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."