Dorchester Times: NEWS ROUND-UP: Dorchester's 9-And-Under Baseball Team Wins Championship

Monday, July 5, 2021

NEWS ROUND-UP: Dorchester's 9-And-Under Baseball Team Wins Championship

Dorchester Pee-Wees Win League Championship: Dorchester is home to rich baseball history. Our community was known as a baseball town as early as the start of the 1900s. But in recent years, the village has struggled with participation numbers in boys athletics, especially baseball. So it came as a pleasant surprise last week when the town's nine-and-under baseball team -- affectionately known as the "pee-wees" -- won the SFS League championship. Several sources we spoke to say this championship points to the bright future ahead for Dorchester boys athletics, considering the young crop of talent in elementary school. Congrats to these players and their coaches.

Dorchester Concludes Another Successful July 4 Celebration: The community has wrapped up another successful, well-attended Independence Day celebration -- one that would have made the Founders quite proud. The Dorchester American Legion reported running out of food due to the strong showing. Many showed up for bingo on a hot day. The show-and-shine event had several entries. As volunteer Peg Bergmeyer wrote, "From the great meal served by the Sons of the Legion, pie and ice cream from the auxiliary, bingo, kids games/tractor pull, parade and fireworks, it was a great day."

Village Seeks Assistant Clerk: The Village of Dorchester is currently taking applications for the position of deputy clerk. Click here to apply. Meanwhile, the next village board meeting will be this Wednesday, July 7 at 7 p.m. at the Community Building -- a change from the typical first Monday of the month due to the Independence Day holiday.

DPS Calendar for Upcoming School Year: It's hard to believe, but the start of school is just six weeks away. (Hear the groans from the kids?) Here is the Dorchester Public School calendar for the 2021-22 school year. The month-by-month calendar is online, as well.

State News Media Once Celebrated Rural Greatness: An interesting letter to the editor recently appeared in The Columbus Telegram. The letter referenced a Sept. 22, 1940 article from the Omaha World-Herald. The article, titled "Family of Champions," highlighted the Wielage family of Dorchester and five of their seven children who had excelled in their school and 4-H activities. More than 80 years later, it's hard for many to believe that a large, statewide publication like the World-Herald once wrote positive stories that focused on the achievements of everyday rural residents -- positive news spotlighting something other than oppression that occurred centuries ago, or transgender or gay rights, or man-induced climate change, or "inequity" during prosperous times, or anything else the media deem wrong in their attempt to divide the USA.

1 comment:

cynical richardJuly 7, 2021 at 9:17 PM
............ skeptical pee wees rule .......................
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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."