ALHN - Dover Windham County Vermont

Dover
Organized 1780
Vermont
Local History and Genealogy

History/Histories

o History of Dover Vermont, 200 Years in a Hill Town, by Nell M. Kull, The Book Cellar, Brattleboro, VT, 1961.

The town of Dover has not always been a town within itself. It was originally the south section of the Town of Wardsborough. Thus, Dover itself was not granted a charter. Wardsborough was granted a charter on November 7, 1780. It was granted to William Ward of Newfane and his associates. In Vermont's early land grants, the proprietors often never lived in the town. As for Wardsborough, out of the 17 proprietors whose names were listed in the Census for 1790 and 1800, only seven of those actually were settlers. They were Elkanah Woodcock; John Jones; Josiah Brown; Silas Brown; Isaac Chapin; Amos Shepardson and Jonathan Jones, Jr.

Dover first became a separate town in 1788. For eight years they lived on the "other side of the mountain" in actuality. Being on the south side of the mountain, the settlers decided because of the inconvenience to meet with those on the north side of the mountain, that they should petition to have the two section's divided as separate towns. This petition was signed Sept 25, 1787 and passed three days after it was presented to Council in Manchester on October 15, 1788. Dover was then became known as "South District" and eventually as Dover.

The first settler in the south section was Captain Abner Perry, who came from Holliston, Massachusetts in 1779. His daughter Anna, born July 18, 1782, was the first child born in the town. Ebenezer and Margaret Love Sparks, whose families had settled in Dover, became the first couple married in town. Other families who settled on the "south side" were the Halls, the Eamses and the Kendalls. The people came mostly from eastern Massachusetts and northeast Connecticut. Ebenezer Sparks and Robert Love came from Killingly, Connecticut. As the years past, more names were added to the town's list of families. Some of those were Timothy and Aaron Wood, Jonathan K. Wells, Gardner Howe, Ebenezer and William Sears, Lemuel Osgood and Roger Birchard who was the maternal grandfather of President Rutherford Hayes. Many other names can be added to the various sections of this new town called Dover, William Haskins, James Slade, Elijah Baldwin, Reuben Chittenden, Gamaliel Ellis and the Kemp brothers.

Dover now consists of three sections, West Dover, East Dover and Dover Center, although the original settlement seems to have been in Dover Center at the top of the mountain.

Vital Records

o Dover Town Clerk
Mary Lou Raymo, CMC
PO Box 428
West Dover VT 05356
802-464-5100
email: doverto@sover.net

Cemeteries—As listed in Burial Grounds of Vermont, published by Vermont Old Cemetery Association

#	Name	Remarks
1.	Duncan	Abandoned
2.	Un-named	Abandoned
3.	Weston	Abandoned
4.	White Family	Abandoned
5.	Howard	Moved to Mt. View
6.	Hathaway
7.	Rice-Snow (private)
8.	Mt. View
9.	Alden
10.	Smead Hill
11.	Baldwin
12.	Dover Center
13.	East Dover
14.	West Dover Village
15.	Thomas McDaniel	Abandoned - location unknown
16.	Converse (Bull) stone	Commerative stone, not a burial

Census Records

o Windham County Census Sources

Military

Dover in the American Revolutionary War Dover's first settler Abner Perry came to Dover before the war was over. The following settlers were soldiers in the Revolutionary War:
Elijah Baldwin	Samuel Hall	Joshua Kendall	Ebenezer Sparks
Joseph Briggs	William Hall	David Leonard	Eliphaz Stearns
David Dexter	Gardner How	Abner Perry	Luther Ward
Gamaliel Ellis	David Johnson	Ebenezer Sears	Timothy Wood
John Fitch
Dover also became the home of two deserters from the British army, Thomas McDaniels and James Weston.

o Dover in the Civil War

Genealogy

Biographies

o Rev. John Baldwin of Dover, VT ~ by David C. Young.

Resources

Historical Societies & Libraries

o Dover Free Library
P.O. Box 477
East Dover, VT 05341
802-348-7488
E-Mail: DOVER_FREE@dol.state.vt.us

Local Websites

o Virtual Vermont - Dover

o Town of Dover Vermont History Page

Photographs

o Mary Lou Raymo Photograph Collection

We hope that you will have data that relates to Windham County that can be added to this site. Gedcoms, histories, cemetery listings, photographs, contacts, resources, etc. are all welcome.

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Windham County Homepage

VT Logo Courtesy of Fred Smoot

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Page Last Updated Thursday, June 08, 2000

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