Dorchester Times: NEWS ROUND-UP: Homecoming Week At Dorchester

Monday, September 18, 2023

NEWS ROUND-UP: Homecoming Week At Dorchester

DHS Homecoming Week Is Here: This is homecoming week in Dorchester. Students are celebrating with their spirit week themes, while DHS' football and volleyball teams are preparing to win for the generations of Orange and Black pride. The homecoming football contest will feature a match-up between DHS (1-2) and Meridan (0-3) on Friday, Sept. 22 at 7 p.m. Ironically, none of this week's volleyball contests are at home. Check out Dorchester Public School's spirit week schedule

Hailey Schweitzer Records 1,000 Assists at DHS: Dorchester's Hailey Schweitzer has recorded 1,000 career assists as a Dorchester volleyball player. Schweitzer reached this astounding benchmark Friday, Sept. 15, in DHS' contest against Harvard. The Lady Longhorns went on to win, bringing the squad to 9-2 on the season.

DHS Volleyball Cruises to 9-2: The DHS volleyball team continues to add to its win column, knocking off Cedar Bluffs, Nebraska Lutheran, and Harvard in recent days. Based on records alone, Dorchester (9-2) is a top 5 team in Nebraska's Class D-1 at this point in the season. The week, DHS will travel to Osceola (6-4), then to Shelby to face Shelby/Rising City (7-4) and High Plains Community (6-5), then to Waco to face Omaha Christian Academy (4-4) and Nebraska Lutheran (2-9).

Saline County Museum Fall Festival This Weekend: Living History Day is set for this Sunday, Sept. 24, at the Saline County Historical Museum in south Dorchester. The fun and learning will begin at 11 a.m. and last through 3 p.m. This is a free family event with interactive demonstrations of historical skills going on during the day on the grounds. Food and drinks will be sold on museum grounds. Learn more.

Church Lunch, Fundraiser, Oct. 1: The Dorchester United Methodist Church is getting ready to host a community lunch and fundraiser on Sunday, Oct. 1. The fundraiser will support the church's after-school program, which is utilized by numerous families in our community. See this flyer below for more details.

Community Clean-Up Set for Oct. 9-16: Dorchester's Community Fall Clean-Up will be from Monday, Oct. 9 through Monday, Oct. 16. That week, the village dump site will be open Monday thru Friday 3-7 p.m. and Saturday 9 a.m. - 5 p.m. No excuses to get your place looking like the pride of all Dorchester.

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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."