Dorchester Times: NEWS ROUND-UP: Cruise Night Is Monday, May 2

Sunday, May 1, 2022

NEWS ROUND-UP: Cruise Night Is Monday, May 2

Cruise Night This Monday: There will be a cruise night on Dorchester's main street (Washington Ave.) this Monday, May 2. Cruising begins at 5 p.m., according to organizers and continue through the evening until sundown. The Dorchester American Legion bar and grill will be serving drink specials. (Be sure to have designated drivers!)

Dorchester Baseball Schedule Released: The crack (or ding) of the bats will soon be heard once again at Nerud Field! Here is the 2022 Dorchester PeeWee and American League baseball schedule. The first game of the season will be in Friend on May 10.

Junior High Quiz Bowl Team Scores 4th Place Finish: Dorchester's Quiz Bowl Team A (Bailey Theis, Eva Elkins, Mishaela Church, and Thomas Ziemann) took home a fourth place trophy from the AMI Middle School Quiz Bowl April 27 at Seward Civic Center. The team missed third place by only five points.

DHS Journalists Shine at State Competition: The Nebraska School Activities Association State Journalism was held in Norfolk April 25. Several DHS students took home state journalism medalists, continuing Dorchester's longstanding tradition of being a bastion for developing journalism talent. DHS placed fifth overall in Class C. Longhorns who placed in this year's state journalism contest were: Gabby Theis (freshman): 1st in news/feature photography; Ashton Rasplicka (senior), 7th in photo illustration; Madison Sherwood (senior), 3rd in news/feature photography, 5th in yearbook theme copy writing; Tyler Sysel (senior), 7th in yearbook feature writing, 4th in yearbook theme copy writing; Jacob Cerny (junior), 6th in yearbook sports feature writing; Mitzu Real (sophomore): 8th in advertising, 4th in sports/action photography; Hailey Schweitzer (sophomore): 6th in photo illustration, 5th in yearbook layout, 3rd in yearbook sports feature writing, 3rd in yearbook theme copy writing; Andrea Pavlish (freshman): 4th in newspaper feature writing. The team of Madison Sherwood, Tyler Sysel, and Hailey Schweitzer took 8th in Yearbook Theme Development. The DHS team is advised by Mrs. Sandy Severance.

DPS School Bus Drivers Wanted: Dorchester Public School is looking for bus drivers for the 2022-2023 school year. Contact the school for more details if you're interested in this part-time job.

Herbster Earns Times' Support: With former President Donald Trump visiting Nebraska today, five of the six Dorchester Times staff members are supporting Charles Herbster for governor. (The other staff member supports Jim Pillen.) Trump will speak in Greenwood today (Sunday, May 1) at 5 p.m.

1 comment:

AnonymousMay 1, 2022 at 10:43 AM
Is Cruise night the same night as the elementary concert?
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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."