Dorchester Times: Emil Veprosky Passes At 96; Services Thursday

Wednesday, October 22, 2025

Emil Veprosky Passes At 96; Services Thursday

Emil Anton Veprovsky was born Sept. 1, 1930, to John and Rose (Kasal), on a farm east of Dorchester, known as the Luzum farm.

He attended school in District 43 (kindergarten through 8th grade), where he learned to speak English, and then went to Dorchester Public School. At the age of 16, he stayed home and helped on the family farm.

The family moved to a different location near Dorchester until they finally settled on the place that would become their home place. A farm that was located five miles south of Dorchester was purchased by his dad in 1948. They moved onto the property, a large, tall farmhouse from about 8 miles away, in 1956. Emil helped with building the basement walls and setting the house on the sturdy foundation.

In 1950, Emil joined the National Guard. Drafted for active duty from Feb. 26, 1953, to Feb. 11, 1955, he completed basic training at Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri, then trained as an Engineering Foreman at Fort Belvoir, Virginia. He later served in Korea and Japan before returning to the U.S., where he was stationed in Seattle, Washington, and Fort Carson, Colorado. Though released from active duty, Emil continued in the Army Reserve for several years.

Emil met the love of his life, Shirley Eret, at the Sunset Dance Hall in Emerald. They were married June 5, 1960, and lived a half-mile south of Pleasant Hill for five years. They then moved to their permanent home, which was the home place. Here, he made the home place a prosperous farm. He raised cattle, hogs, chickens, crops, and continued to upgrade his equipment.

His family was very important to him. He and Shirley raised three children, and Emil instilled a good work ethic. He worked very hard to provide for his family. When Shirley wanted a milk cow, he went out and found one. When she wanted to raise chickens, he set up a chicken house for baby chicks and a chicken house for hens to lay eggs. He helped her start a garden and plant potatoes on Good Friday, and he remodeled the house. He drove the school bus for the Dorchester school for a few years to help out with expenses.

There were times for enjoyment as well; he took his family on summer vacations. He was a member of the Dorchester American Legion. He received a quilt of Valor in May 2022 and was Veteran of the Month in May 2025. He also was a long-time member of the WFLA Lodge Tabor Hall, where he spent many nights with other members remodeling and repairing the hall so Tabor could be re-opened to the public. Emil held the office of president at Tabor for many years and spent many weekends working the events at the hall.

The love for farming continued, and he put many long hours on the tractor even into his elderly age. At 94 years old, he was still driving tractors, cutting hay, feeding cattle, and driving grain trucks. He was always willing to try new things, even if he was skeptical. He used to say that he started by planting with a team of horses. He ended by using GPS. (Although he wasn’t really fond of it. He was certain he planted straighter rows without it.) However, over time, his body started wearing out, and he became ill. Despite battling illness for over a year, one of his last goals was to go out to cut hay one more time. His last farm duty was cutting 78 acres of alfalfa in the 2025 season. When he felt well enough, he continued to enjoy rides out to the field. Eventually, on Oct. 18, 2025, his fight ended when he passed away at Bryan East in Lincoln.

Left to cherish his memory are his son, Gary (Penny) Veprovsky, his daughter, Karen Chadwick, his son and daughter-in-law, Kevin & Lisa Veprovsky, all from Dorchester. Sister-in-law, Bonnie Eret, brothers & sisters in law: Frank & Judy Eret, Richard and Vicki Kuzelka. Grandchildren: Joshua (Amber) Mackeprang, Melanie, and Shelby. 4 step grandchildren, many great grandchildren, nieces & nephews.

Emil is preceded in death by his parents, sisters & brother in laws, Rosie (Orin) Duchek and Jarmila (Arnest) Dvorak.

Services will be held Oct. 23, 2025, at 10:30 a.m. at Kuncl Funeral Home in Crete. Visitation will be on Wednesday from 6 - 8 p.m. at the funeral home. Arrangements entrusted to Kuncl Funeral Home in Crete. Memorials have been designated to the Dorchester Volunteer Fire and Rescue Department.

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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."