The New International Encyclopædia/Dover (New Hampshire)

DOVER. A city and county-seat of Strafford County, N. H., 10 miles northwest of Portsmouth; on the Cocheco River, and on branches of the Boston and Maine Railroad (Map: New Hampshire, L 9). It is situated at the head of minor navigation on the Cocheco. The river here has a fall of over 30 feet, furnishing excellent water-power. Dover is an important shipping port. The chief industries include the manufacturing of cotton and woolen goods, machinery, castings, belting, bricks, lumber in various products, boots and shoes, etc.—industries which, in 1900, employed 3122 persons, represented a capital investment of $5,218,899, and produced an output valued at $6,057,719. Dover has a public library, and a fine town hall and opera house. Under the revised charter of 1881, the city is governed by a mayor, elected annually, and a bicameral council, which controls the appointments to the subordinate municipal offices, the street commissioner alone being elected by the people. The municipality owns and operates an efficient system of waterworks. First settled in 1623, and therefore the oldest city in the State. Dover was organized as a town in 1633, received its present name in 1639, and was chartered as a city in 1855. It was a frontier town throughout the seventeenth century, and frequently suffered from Indian attacks, the most disastrous of which occurred on June 28, 1689, when 23 of the inhabitants were killed, 29 carried into captivity, and a number of houses destroyed. Population, in 1890, 12,790; in 1900, 13,207.