AREA HISTORY:  Dover Township, York County, PA

Contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by Kathy Francis

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History of York County, Pennsylvania.  John Gibson, Historical Editor.
Chicago: F. A. Battey Publishing Co., 1886.
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THE TOWNSHIP OF DOVER – Page 674

THIS township was erected before 1749.  Until the erection of Conewago, in 1818, 
the western two-thirds of that township was embraced in Dover.  In 1783, there 
were in this township 219 houses, 146 barns, 697 male and 670 female 
inhabitants, 4 slaves, 7 mills and 23,811 acres of land not vacant.  The form of 
Dover Township is irregular, with the southwestern boundary as a base resting 
upon Jackson and Paradise, Washington and Warrington to the west and north, and 
Conewago, Manchester and West Manchester to the east.  The Conewago Hills begin 
in the western part of this township and extend in a northeasterly direction to 
York Haven.

From the first ridge of the Conewaga Hills, near Mount Royal, along the public 
road to Rossville, the observer is afforded a landscape view to the south, east 
and west, almost unrivaled in enchanting beauty.  The panorama unfolded included 
one-half the area of York County, and equally as much of several other counties.

Dover is drained by the Great Conewago in the north, and the Little Conewago, 
which crosses its southeastern extremity.

The population in 1880 was 2,378; value of real estate in 1884 was $1,340,784; 
there were then 741 taxable inhabitants, county tax paid for the same year, 
$4,980; State tax $246.  Nearly al land in the township was first settled by the 
Germans, and the language of that industrious people yet predominates.  English 
is taught in the schools exclusively.