Dorchester Times: NEWS ROUND-UP: Longhorn Volleyball, Football Teams Have Momentum

Wednesday, September 21, 2022

NEWS ROUND-UP: Longhorn Volleyball, Football Teams Have Momentum

(Photo Credit: Salty and Lit Photography)

Longhorn Football Seeks to Improve to .500: The Dorchester High School football team defeated previously unbeaten Harvard last Friday, Sept. 16. The 24-20 Longhorns victory -- which was kept the Nerud Field crowd on the edge of their seats until the very end -- provided DHS with a happy homecoming and the team's first victory of the season. Now the 1-2 Longhorns hope to notch another win this Friday, facing Meridian (0-3) in a road contest.

DHS Volleyball Now 9-2: Halfway through the 2022 regular season, the Dorchester High School Volleyball team is flying high, having racked up nine wins already this season. Since their last loss on Sept. 8, the Lady 'Horns have breezed past Red Cloud, Nebraska Lutheran, Friend, Harvard, and Osceola. But it should be noted that the last four opponents only have four wins -- combined -- this season. So DHS has been preparing for a more difficult level of play. DHS hosts Class C-2 Shelby/Rising City (9-4) and High Plains Community (10-5) this Thursday, Sept. 22. Then on Saturday, Sept. 24, DHS travels to Nebraska Lutheran for a four-team round robin.

Perez, Duchek Voted Homecoming Royalty: The DHS student body elected Fernando Perez and Jayana Duchek as their 2022 homecoming king and queen last week. Congrats to both Longhorns!

Dorchester's Water Gets OK for Drinking: Dorchester's water is safe to drink. That's the message from village hall, which reports that the community's well No. 5 has been tested and the results came back with no contamination. Well No. 4 remains turned off due to high levels of carbon tetrachloride -- a chemical that was once widely used as a cleaning fluid in home and industry. Until 1986, the chemical was used as a grain fumigant.

Free Fall Festival at Saline County Museum Is Saturday: The members of the Saline County Historical Society are working overtime for this Saturday's (Sept. 24) "Living History Day at the Museum." The event will be held at the museum in south Dorchester from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. This free, family-oriented event will feature historical skills and demonstrations. Special performances by the Studio C Cloggers and the Junior Czech Dancers. The day will end with an old time tent revival sing along. Food will be available for purchase. Attendees are encouraged to bring their family members, friends, and lawn chair and stay for all four hours. Any donations will go towards new flooring in the main building, according to an email sent to the Times. This is sure to be an autumn highlight.

Mike Reiss, DHS Grad of '75, Passes: Michael Kent Reiss, age 65, passed away Sept. 18. Mike was born August 13, 1957 in Crete Nebraska to Delbert and Irene Reiss. He graduated from Dorchester Public School in 1975. He then started working at Farmland Foods until he joined the U.S. Army in 1978 and was stationed in Germany. In 1980, Mike helped on the farm after his father, Delbert, was in a serious combine accident, which released him from the Army. He then went back to work at Farmland and continued working until he recently retired, for a total of 45 years. A Celebration of Life will be held Saturday, Sept. 24 at 11 a.m. at Kuncl Funeral Home in Crete.

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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."