HISTORY The first counties in Pennsylvania were established in 1681 under a charter granted to William Penn by Charles II, King of England. Settlement occurred mainly east of the Susquehanna River until the conclusion of the Indian Treaty of 1736, when the limits of Lancaster County were extended indefinitely westward. These fertile lands were soon occupied by immigrants from England, Ireland, Scotland, and Germany. BOUNDARY FORMATION It was under the authority of the Lancaster County Court that Dover Township was formed in 1743. It was formed out of old Manchester Township which was so large that it even extended into Adams County. The township's name, Dover, was apparently selected because of some Englishman's nostalgia for his earlier home in England. The shape of Dover Township is irregular with its southwestern boundary resting upon what is now Jackson and Paradise Townships. To the west lie Warrington and Washington Townships, while to the east lie West Manchester, Manchester, and Conewago Townships. Its original boundaries were not well-defined, but they included part of what is today Washington and Conewago Townships, and Dover Borough. In 1770, that area which stretches from the top of the Conewago Hills to the Big Conewago Creek, was added to Dover Township from Warrington Township. The Big Conewago Creek forms its present western boundary line. Then, in 1818, Dover residents east of the Bull Road petitioned the York County Courts to form a new township known as Conewago Township. About two-thirds of this new township came from Dover Township and one-third from Newberry Township. It is this line along the Bull Road, delineated in 1818, which forms the present eastern boundary of the township. The northern boundary is formed where the eastern and western boundaries of Dover Township meet. The southern boundary consists of a line which originally separated Dover Township from Paradise Township. Today, it separates Dover Township from both Paradise and Jackson Townships. Jackson Township was an offspring of the original Paradise Township. The southeastern boundary of Dover Township is delineated by the Little Conewago Creek up to the point where it meets the Bull Road. The incorporation of the Borough of Dover was the last major change in the boundaries of the township. This incorporation of the town of Dover, as it was then called, took place in 1864 after it was laid out by Jacob Joner; about 1747. Since that time, the only changes in the land area of the township that have occurred, were due to a few annexations by the Borough of Dover. EARLY SETTLEMENT Early in the eighteenth century, Indians from the Potomac River area, Philadelphia, and Delaware River areas, mingled using the grounds between their settlements as hunting grounds. Smaller settlements were spread here and there and a group of Indians, later to be known as the Conewagos, lived along creeks such as the Conewago Creek, Little Conewago Creek, and Fox Run in Dover Township. The original Indians of this region, the Susquehannocks, had been annihilated by tribes of the Iroquois Nation. Place names, family traditions, and artifacts substantiate the fact that Indian settlements existed in and around the Dover Township area. At the time of these settlements, though, the township was merely an extension of the wilderness that was part of Lancaster County which was still under the jurisdiction of Philadelphia. The Indians of the York-Dover area were distributed and had, on occasion, complained to Philadelphia about the white settlers who were crossing the Susquehanna River and clearing the wilderness and planting. It became evident that the settlers were coming into the area to live and settle. The Palatinate country along the Rhine River in Germany was the origin of nearly all of the original settlers of Dover Township. These settlers came to the new world either directly or by way of an interim life in Switzerland or Holland in order to escape religious persecution. Some of these early settlers of Dover Township were of the German Baptist Church, but most of them were of the Lutheran and Reformed Congregations. The customs of the Fatherland, the church, and the school were brought here by these early German settlers. Much of the land in the township is fertile and produces abundant crops. The major source of income for these early settlers was farming. Corn, wheat, and potatoes were the primary crops except in the northern section where peaches and strawberries were cultivated and became an important industry in that section during the early days of the township. Other important industries during the early days of the township were weaving, tanning, quarrying, and harness and wagon-making. The sandstone for the ornamentations on the Harrisburg Court House was quarried in the township. The township location was ideal for the tanning industry because hides could be obtained from nearby butchers and dehaired with the lime from the West Manchester Township Lime kilns. An early inventory of Dover Township (1783), showed 219 horses, 146 barns, 697 male and 670 female inhabitants; 4 slaves, 7 mills, and 23,811 acres of land. From this early inventory (1,367 inhabitants), the population of the township has shown a slow but steady increase except for two distinct periods. Before and after the turn of the twentieth century, the population showed a slight decline while during recent years, there has been a tremendous influx of people into the township. TABLE 1 POPULATION HISTORY 1783 - 2000 Year - Population Year - Population Year - Population 1783 1,367 1880 2,378 1950 3,864 1820 1,816 1890 2,349 1960 6,399 1830 1,874 1900 2,313 1965 8,049 1840 1,920 1910 2,211 1970 8,975 1850 1,918 1920 2,209 1973 10,472 1860 2,258 1930 2,652 1980 12,581 1870 2,281 1940 3,019 1990 15,576 2000 19,406 Several of these settlements of people in Dover Township reach back into its very earliest days of existence. The oldest settlement was Emig's Mill where a Dietrich Updegraff took up land in 1745 and where a house of public entertainment existed. Later, a roller mill which originated as a mill in colonial times, flourished here. Also, many Indian artifacts have been found by collectors along the Little Conewago Creek from Emig's Mill to its mouth at York Haven. Davidsburg, a village situated in the center of a fine agricultural region in the western part of Dover Township, has been an interesting area since its beginning in the early part of the nineteenth century. Part of its importance can be attributed to the fact that it is located along the Shippensburg Road (now the Davidsburg Road). During colonial times, this was a well-known route of travel from York to the Cumberland Valley. Its importance later grew as a wagon trail for farm products being carried from York Country to the Baltimore area for sale. Some of the early enterprises of importance in Davidsburg were a harness-making business, the sale of farm implements, a cigar factory, general merchandising businesses, and a village hotel. Admire is a small village in the southwestern part of the township a few miles south of Davidsburg. It was originally called Slabtown; then Newport, and for a brief period of time it was known as Voltaire before receiving its present name of Admire. A store and a post office existed there around the turn of the twentieth century. Mount Royal was a cluster of houses in the northern part of the township along the road from Dover to Rossville, a village in Warrington Township. A store and a post office had existed there for many years. Both of these were under the direction of a Robert Kunkle around the turn of the twentieth century. When it received its name in 1825, the village of Weigelstown was a small hamlet of about half a dozen houses near the southern boundary of the township. Its name is believed to be derived from two of its early settlers named Weigel; one of whom was a blacksmith, while the other was a tavern keeper. The village grew from six houses in 1825 to over 200 people by the turn of the century. Several of the early village structures still stand today. CONFEDERATE INVASION On June 28, 1863, General Jubal Early and about 6,000 Confederate soldiers passed through the lower part of Dover Township on their way to York. They traveled West Canal Road south of Davidsburg and then passed through Weigelstown enroute to York. On June 30, having been ordered to fall back to Gettysburg, he returned by the same route he had entered. He stopped in Davidsburg for dinner. It was at this time that they heard cannons to the southwest, but they continued on their assigned mission to Gettysburg. The cannons they had heard were from a confrontation between the Union forces of Kilpatrick and the Confederate forces of Stuart at Hanover. On July 1, the morning after Early's retreat from York, General Stuart and his defeated force of about 6,000 men passed through Dover Township. They captured a large number of farm horses and left their tired mounts in return. The horses captured were never returned and many were probably killed two days later along with Stuart's troops at the battle of Gettysburg. WORLD WAR I There is not much information about participation in World War I. However, the involvement of young soldiers must have affected the population, for the school noticed a decrease in enrollment. WORLD WAR II Dover area was not without representation at the fronts in World War II .