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The Dover Public Library website offers public access to a wide range of information, including historical materials that are products of their particular times, and may contain values, language or stereotypes that would now be deemed insensitive, inappropriate or factually inaccurate. However, these records reflect the shared attitudes and values of the community from which they were collected and thus constitute an important social record.
The materials contained in the collection do not represent the opinions of the City of Dover, or the Dover Public Library.
Dover Historical Dates
Important Dover Historical Dates
| 1623 | Dover is founded |
| 1632 | John Tuttle settles on Dover Point. Tuttle's Farm is now America’s oldest continuously family owned and operated farm. |
| 1638 | First Parish Church is established |
| 1641 | Dover becomes part of the Massachusetts Bay Colony |
| 1648 | Richard Waldron's sawmill becomes the first industry in Dover |
| 1658 | The first schoolmaster is hired at 20 pounds per year |
| 1662 | The Quaker women are whipped out of town |
| 1675-1725 | Indian Wars |
| 1679 | Dover becomes part of New Hampshire province |
| 1680 | The Friends Meetinghouse is established |
| 1689 | The massacre. The Indians burn the Garrisons at Cochecho, killing 29 and taking 27 captives to Canada |
| 1713 | Newington is made a separate parish |
| 1729 | Somersworth is made separate |
| 1731 | Pine Hill Cemetery is founded |
| 1732 | Oyster River is made separate |
| 1755 | Madbury is made separate |
| 1771 | Dover becomes the county seat |
| 1773 | The first jail is built |
| 1774 | The first female school teacher is hired |
| 1776 | 29 Dover men are killed in the American Revolution |
| 1788 | Dover's first hanging. Elisha Thomas was executed for the murder of Captain Peter Drown, whom he stabbed in a drunken brawl. |
| 1790 | The first post office is established |
| 1790 | The first newspaper is established |
| 1792 | The Social Library is incorporated |
| 1792 | Dover serves as the State Capitol |
| 1794 | Piscataqua Bridge is built between Dover and Newington |
| 1795 | The first fire department, the Dover Fire Society, is established |
| 1812 | The Dover Cotton Factory is incorporated |
| 1814 | Production of cloth begins at Mill #1 |
| 1817 | President James Monroe visits |
| 1824 | Sawyer Woolen Mills open |
| 1825 | General Lafayette visits |
| 1827 | The first calico made in the U.S. is manufactured at Cocheco Mills |
| 1828 | The first strike by women in the U.S. occurs at Cocheco Mills |
| 1833 | John Quincy Adams visits |
| 1838 | The number of ships in Boston from Dover was 97, a number larger than any place east of NY, other than Portland |
| 1838 | The number of ships in Boston from Dover was 97, a number larger than any place east of NY, other than Portland |
| 1841 | B&M Railroad comes to Dover |
| 1847 | Abolitionist John Hale of Dover is elected to the U.S. Senate |
| 1847 | Telegraph office opens |
| 1848 | Horace Greeley visits |
| 1850 | Dover Gas light Company incorporated |
| 1852 | The first high school opens |
| 1853 | The first gas lights are used |
| 1855 | Dover becomes a city. The vote is 498 to 454. |
| 1857 | Franklin Pierce visits |
| 1860 | Abraham Lincoln visits |
| 1861-1865 | Over 800 Dover men serve in the Civil War |
| 1873 | Foster's newspaper is begun |
| 1877 | Dover Navigation Company organized, owned 10 schooners |
| 1880 | Garrison Hill Tower is built |
| 1881 | The first telephone |
| 1889 | City Hall burns |
| 1889 | Benjamin Harrison visits |
| 1896 | Dover is devastated by a tremendous flood |
| 1897 | Garrison Hill Tower burns |
| 1901 | The first automobile |
| 1902 | Theodore Roosevelt visits |
| 1904 | Wentworth-Douglass Hospital is founded |
| 1905 | The Dover Public Library is built |
| 1907 | Cocheco Mill #1 burns |
| 1912 | William Howard Taft visits |
| 1913 | Garrison Hill Tower is rebuilt |
| 1917 | 545 Dover citizens serve in WWI |
| 1932 | Franklin Delano Roosevelt visits |
| 1933 | City Hall burns again |
| 1938 | Sherman School is destroyed by a hurricane |
| 1945 | 2230 Dover citizens serve in WWII |
| 1952 | Harry S. Truman visits |
| 1967 | The last passenger train leaves Dover |
| 1973 | Dover celebrates its 350th birthday |
This historical essay is provided free to all readers as an educational service. It may not be reproduced on any website, list, bulletin board, or in print without the permission of the Dover Public Library. Links to the Dover Public Library homepage or a specific article's URL are permissible.