Dorchester Times: NEWS ROUND-UP: Memorial Day Program Details

Tuesday, May 24, 2022

NEWS ROUND-UP: Memorial Day Program Details

Memorial Day Program Details: The Dorchester American Legion's Memorial Day program is set. The Dorchester Cemetery program will begin at 10 a.m. and last roughly 30 minutes. The Pleasant Hill Cemetery program will start at 11 a.m. Following the Pleasant Hill ceremony, there the traditional covered dish luncheon will take place at the Dorchester Legion Hall.

Dorchester Foundation Receives Park Improvement Grant: The Dorchester Community Foundation Fund recently announced that it was awarded a $7,500 matching grant for new investment or improvements to the village's park facilities. According to the Foundation's social media, it will deposit $15,000 in the village government's park account shortly. We specifically addressed park benches and shade structures, picnic tables for the small shelter, and a shade structure for the playground equipment. Local youth will be involved in the design, the Foundation says.

Preparing for Next School Year: Now that school's out for the summer, it's time to start preparing for Dorchester's 2022-23 school year. If your child needs transportation to school beginning in August, call Superintendent Daryl Schrunk at 402.946.2781 or email daryl.schrunk@dorchesterschool.org. Also, there will be back-to-school immunization clinics every Tuesday and Thursday in July from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. at 830 E. 1st St., Suite 300 in Crete. (Call 402.826.3880 to make an appointment.)

Alumni Golf Tourney Is Almost Here: The ninth annual DHS Alumni Golf Tournament is almost here, set for Saturday, June 4, at the Friend Country Club. If you still have interest in participating, contact Dorchester Schools Athletic Director Brent Zoubek at bzoubek@dorchesterschool.org or (402) 946-2781.

Texas School Shooting Serves as Tragic Reminder: Today's school massacre in Texas -- committed by another teenage nut job -- is a reminder that every school in America needs to have a single point of entry, as well as armed faculty. (If that requires more male presence in our schools, so be it.) Evil is spreading throughout the world. It cannot be eliminated, only countered. In addition to bringing back state-run mental institutions and renewing a very broken culture, the country must ensure all schools are taking proactive steps to guard against sicko copycats.

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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."