Dorchester Times: NEWS ROUND-UP: Dorchester's Autumn Street Paving Projects

Wednesday, October 9, 2024

NEWS ROUND-UP: Dorchester's Autumn Street Paving Projects

Dorchester's Autumn Street Paving Projects: Dorchester continues to add more concrete streets, as crews work to pave sections of Franklin Ave. and 8th Street that border the city park. Approved the the village board, the project will ensure paved streets surround the park, with the exception of the alley to the east. Meanwhile, Dorchester's main street, Washington Ave., is being resurfaced for the first time in more than 30 years. According to our records, the street was last resurfaced in the fall of 1991, or 33 years ago. In recent years, the street had become quite rough due to holes and cracks in the surface, especially as more semi-truck and trailer traffic utilizes the roadway.

Community Fall Clean-Up Begins Saturday: Dorchester's Community Fall Clean-Up will be from Saturday, Oct. 12 through Monday, Oct. 19. The dump site will be open Monday thru Friday 3-7 p.m. and Saturday 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

DHS Football Scores First Victory of 2024: The Dorchester football team picked up its first win of the 2024 campaign on Sept. 27, beating Harvard 58-12. The Longhorns, now 1-4, on the season, will take on Diller-Odell (4-1) this Friday, Oct. 11, in a contest at Nerud Field.

DHS Volleyball Team Hits Rough Patch: This blog may have jinxed the DHS volleyball team when we wrote on Sept. 24 that the Orange and Black Attack deserved to be in the Class D-2 top ten. Since defeating No. 8 Osceola, Dorchester has dropped five of its last nine contests. The Lady Longhorns now stand at 14-7 on the season. Next up for DHS is Cross County (13-11) in a Thursday road game (Oct. 10) and a home contest against Lincoln Parkview Christian ( 0-18) on Monday, Oct. 14.

Missing Lincoln Woman Found in Dorchester: A woman who went missing from her home in southwest Lincoln was found in Dorchester, according to media reports. Charlotte Starkey, 75, had been missing since Sunday, according to the Lincoln Police Department. Police said her husband returned to their house near 16th and Burnham streets at about 2:30 p.m. and couldn’t find her. Around 6 a.m. Tuesday, LPD said Starkey was found “safe, healthy, and in good spirits.”

EPA Offers Recreation Grants: The U.S. EPA's Recreation Economy for Rural Communities program is accepting applications through Oct. 16. The program provides planning assistance to small towns and rural communities to help them boost their outdoor recreation economy and revitalize their main streets. Past projects have included promoting outdoor-oriented businesses and supporting economic growth and amenities in downtowns. Learn more.

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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."