Dorchester Times: NEWS ROUND-UP: Foundation Fundraiser Dinner, Nov. 14

Sunday, October 18, 2026

NEWS ROUND-UP: Foundation Fundraiser Dinner, Nov. 14

Dorchester Foundation Feed Set for Nov. 14: A highlight of late autumn returns Saturday, Nov. 14, when the Dorchester Community Foundation Fund hosts its Windsor loin and hamburger feed. Serving will run from 4:30 to 8:30 p.m. at the Dorchester Legion and Community Hall, bringing neighbors and friends together for a hearty meal while supporting community improvements, including ambitions of a new community building in the location of where Tyser Auto Sales is currently located. Admission is a free-will offering, with proceeds supporting improvement projects in Dorchester. For takeout orders, call Judy at 402-641-7050. Come hungry, catch up with friends and help support Dorchester.

DHS Football Prepares for Final Contest of Regular Season: Dorchester’s football team has experienced both ends of a lopsided scoreboard in its last two games, routing Scribner-Snyder 75-6 on Oct. 9, and then falling Oct. 16 to unbeaten McCool Junction 48-7. In their victory over Scribner-Snyder, Mason June caught passes for 50 yards and two touchdowns and added a rushing touchdown. Graydon Meredith-Walker contributed 66 rushing yards and a touchdown. Trevin Steuk and Payton Zoubek each intercepted a pass, while Mason Vyhnalek returned a fumble for a touchdown. Against McCool Junction, quarterback Landon Shaw completed 77.4% of his passes for 170 yards and a touchdown. Max Novak led Dorchester’s receivers with 52 yards, while June rushed for 34 yards. DHS, now 3-4 on the season, travels to Mead (3-4) this Friday, Oct. 23.

DHS Volleyball in CRC Tourney Semi-Finals: The DHS volleyball team (13-11) is finding its stride late in the season, winning four of its last six matches and advancing to the semifinals of the Crossroads Conference Tournament in York. The Longhorns improved to 13-11 with a 2-1 victory over Bruning-Davenport-Shickley on Saturday, Oct. 17. Kaitlyn Bolton powered Dorchester’s attack with 17 kills. Kendall Kasl recorded 26 assists and led the Longhorns with three service aces. DHS now heads into the CRC semifinals with momentum as they take on the tournament's top seed, Class C-2 Shelby-Rising City (24-3).

Dorchester FBLA Seeks Vendors for Dec. 6 Holiday Shopping Event: Dorchester students are inviting area vendors and holiday shoppers to help support their next steps in business leadership. The Dorchester Future Business Leaders of America chapter will host its Holiday Vendor Extravaganza from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 6, at Dorchester Public School, 506 W. Ninth St. The event will raise money to help students attend state and national FBLA conferences while giving shoppers a chance to check items off their Christmas lists. Vendor spaces are available. Anyone interested in reserving a booth should contact school counselor Kyra Creamer at kyra.creamer@dorchesterschool.org. A raffle for door prizes will also be held. For more information, follow @dorchesterfbla on Facebook and Instagram.

Rural Dorchester's Verlin Rickard Passes: Verlin Rickard, 84, of rural Dorchester, passed away on October 16, 2026, in Lincoln. Services are pending with Kuncl Funeral Home in Crete. View the obituary 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."