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Dover Historical Dates

Important Dover Historical Dates

1623Dover is founded
1632John Tuttle settles on Dover Point. Tuttle's Farm is now America’s oldest continuously family owned and operated farm.
1638First Parish Church is established
1641Dover becomes part of the Massachusetts Bay Colony
1648Richard Waldron's sawmill becomes the first industry in Dover
1658The first schoolmaster is hired at 20 pounds per year
1662The Quaker women are whipped out of town
1675-1725Indian Wars
1679Dover becomes part of New Hampshire province
1680The Friends Meetinghouse is established
1689The massacre. The Indians burn the Garrisons at Cochecho, killing 29 and taking 27 captives to Canada
1713Newington is made a separate parish
1729Somersworth is made separate
1731Pine Hill Cemetery is founded
1732Oyster River is made separate
1755Madbury is made separate
1771Dover becomes the county seat
1773The first jail is built
1774The first female school teacher is hired
177629 Dover men are killed in the American Revolution
1788Dover's first hanging. Elisha Thomas was executed for the murder of Captain Peter Drown, whom he stabbed in a drunken brawl.
1790The first post office is established
1790The first newspaper is established
1792The Social Library is incorporated
1792Dover serves as the State Capitol
1794Piscataqua Bridge is built between Dover and Newington
1795The first fire department, the Dover Fire Society, is established
1812The Dover Cotton Factory is incorporated
1814Production of cloth begins at Mill #1
1817President James Monroe visits
1824Sawyer Woolen Mills open
1825 General Lafayette visits
1827 The first calico made in the U.S. is manufactured at Cocheco Mills
1828The first strike by women in the U.S. occurs at Cocheco Mills
1833John Quincy Adams visits
1838The number of ships in Boston from Dover was 97, a number larger than any place east of NY, other than Portland
1838The number of ships in Boston from Dover was 97, a number larger than any place east of NY, other than Portland
1841B&M Railroad comes to Dover
1847Abolitionist John Hale of Dover is elected to the U.S. Senate
1847Telegraph office opens
1848Horace Greeley visits
1850 Dover Gas light Company incorporated
1852The first high school opens
1853The first gas lights are used
1855Dover becomes a city. The vote is 498 to 454.
1857Franklin Pierce visits
1860Abraham Lincoln visits
1861-1865Over 800 Dover men serve in the Civil War
1873Foster's newspaper is begun
1877Dover Navigation Company organized, owned 10 schooners
1880Garrison Hill Tower is built
1881The first telephone
1889City Hall burns
1889Benjamin Harrison visits
1896Dover is devastated by a tremendous flood
1897Garrison Hill Tower burns
1901The first automobile
1902Theodore Roosevelt visits
1904Wentworth-Douglass Hospital is founded
1905The Dover Public Library is built
1907Cocheco Mill #1 burns
1912William Howard Taft visits
1913Garrison Hill Tower is rebuilt
1917545 Dover citizens serve in WWI
1932Franklin Delano Roosevelt visits
1933City Hall burns again
1938Sherman School is destroyed by a hurricane
19452230 Dover citizens serve in WWII
1952Harry S. Truman visits
1967The last passenger train leaves Dover
1973Dover celebrates its 350th birthday

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