Dorchester Times: NEWS ROUND-UP: Curtis Cogswell Set To Become New DPS Superintendent

Saturday, December 17, 2022

NEWS ROUND-UP: Curtis Cogswell Set To Become New DPS Superintendent

Daryl Schrunk Resigns; Curtis Cogswell Will Be New DPS Superintendent: After seven years, the Dorchester School District will soon be getting a new superintendent. Current Superintendent Daryl Schrunk submitted his resignation to the DPS board at a special meeting earlier this month. Schrunk -- who has accepted the superintendent position in Randolph, Neb. to be closer to his family -- will continue to serve as Dorchester's superintendent through June. (Here are the board minutes from the special meeting held Dec. 1.) Less than two weeks after Schrunk's resignation, the DPS board announced that the district had hired former McCool Junction Superintendent Dr. Curtis Cogswell as the next DPS superintendent, with a starting date of July 1, 2023.

More on Curtis Cogswell: What's the story behind Dorchester's next superintendent? First of all, Curtis Cogswell has Saline County ties, having grown up on a farm in Friend. As an educational professional, he has the reputation as a rebuilder of schools and communities. For nearly two decades, he was superintendent at McCool Junction. According to reports, when he arrived at McCool in the early 2000s, there were concerns the school would have to close as its K-12 population had dropped to 148. Under Cogswell's leadership, McCool has nearly doubled in size. He holds his bachelor's from Peru State, his master’s from UNK, and his doctorate from Seton Hall.

DPS Christmas Break Begins Dec. 22: Dorchester Public School will be dismissing student Thursday, Dec. 22, at 2 p.m. for the Christmas break. Classes will resume the morning of Thursday, Jan. 5.

DHS Boys Basketball Team Faces Early Struggles: The Dorchester High School boys basketball team has had a slow start out of the gate this season. The boys are 0-4 and have lost all their games thus far by double digits. But the boys' next two opponents are also winless -- Cedar Bluffs on Dec. 20 and Heartland Lutheran on Dec. 22 -- so we like DHS' odds of picking up their first two victories in the week ahead.

DHS Girls Now Above .500: The DHS Lady Longhorns basketball team is now 3-2 on the young season. The girls have shown improvement over their last two contests, beating Harvard 49-13 as well as a solid Osceola team by 38-24. DHS travels to Cedar Bluffs (0-3) Dec. 20 and will host Heartland Lutheran (0-4) on Dec. 22.

Former Dorchester Resident Richard Rathbun Passes: Former Dorchester resident Richard Joe Rathbun Sr of Milford passed away Dec. 6 at the Linden Village at the age of 74. His obituary is available 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."