Dorchester Times: Dorchester's John Potter Passes At Age 90

Sunday, October 26, 2025

Dorchester's John Potter Passes At Age 90

John Paul Potter was born on June 23, 1935, at the Warren Memorial Hospital in
Friend, Nebraska to J. Owen and Eleanor (Asmus) Potter. The oldest of three siblings, he and his brother David spent many days adventuring around Turkey Creek and the Potter farm, south of Dorchester.

John graduated from Dorchester High School and attended Doane College for a short time. He married Betty Ann Bosak in the Dorchester Methodist Church on September 7, 1957. He was drafted to the Army and stationed in Germany, where Betty joined him during his service. He was drafted November 25, 1958, and was honorably discharged February 17, 1961.

John and Betty made their home in Dorchester, Nebraska. John worked at the Dorchester Co-Op Elevator. In September 1965, they welcomed a daughter, Cara to their home. In August 1967, a son, John David was born. The family moved to David City, where they made their home for more than 20 years.

John spent his professional life owning or working for agricultural chemical and equipment companies. This brought travel to many local coffee shops and elevators across Nebraska, Iowa and Missouri. In 2000, he and Betty moved from Missouri to the family farm south of Dorchester. There, he enjoyed gardening – garlic specifically, and he was the host of many popular “garlic festivals” held at the farm. John was a gifted woodworker, making many items for the Church auction, and in the years after Betty passed, he became a vineyard manager, growing cold-hearty grapes on the farm. He hired numerous local youth organizations and school groups to help harvest, and the grapes were made to wine and sold under the Pour House label in Friend.

John renewed his friendship with Chere Williams and together they spent eighteen years as companions, taking various trips, visiting family, making trips to Costco and embarking on joint projects at their home in Friend. He maintained his love of making wine and baking bread until the last years of his life. Sharing wine and bread with those he loved brought him great joy.

Family helped celebrate John’s 90th birthday with a wine toast. He was able to make his final “toddy time” toast with his daughter to celebrate her 60th. John passed away a month later October 17, 2025, in hospice care at Tabitha Elizabeth House in Lincoln, Nebraska. He had been fighting metastatic lung cancer like the determined man he’d always been.

John was a man of strong opinions and faith. He had some who loved him, many friends and a few that tolerated him on occasion. That mix was just fine for him, and he lived 90 years happily and with a zest for life. In his later years, that opinion softened and spirited discussion and political debate melted to stories of happy times, things he was grateful for and expression of love to those close to him. He found joy in watching the neighbor’s kids, love in all pets, even a squirrel he named Peanut, and deep appreciation for his family and friends.

John was cremated and will be laid to rest next to his wife Betty, in Dorchester. He is survived by his “Lady” Chere Williams, daughter Carey and partner Dan VonMoos, son Jack, grandchildren, Joe, Kait and Jake, his “Seester” Ann Phipps, in-laws Larry and Jean Bosak and his favorite cousin Pat Rhoads; many nieces, a nephew, cousins and friends. He was preceded in death by his parents, wife, brother and father and mother in-law Frank and Clara Bosak. There will be no public services.

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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."