The City of Dover celebrated its 100th birthday in December 2001, and the settlement as a whole is rapidly approaching its 200th!

In 1806, Christian Deardorff and his brother-in-law Jesse Slingluff purchased 2,175 acres of land in the Tuscarawas Valley. Part of this acreage is now present-day Dover. The original plat of the settlement allowed space for a square with a courthouse, but when Tuscarawas County was formed two years later, New Philadelphia was chosen as the county seat.

Growth in the little village was slow at first. By 1818 there were five buildings in Dover - two residences and three taverns! The year before, however, Deardorff had secured a post office for Dover, and he was serving as the postmaster. In 1820 the population of the fourteen-year-old village was only 46. But this was about to change.

The building of the canal from 1826 to 1830 greatly increased the population of Dover, as the county's only canal tolling station was located there. In twenty years, the population grew from 46 in 1820 to nearly 600 in 1840. By this time Dover had become a flour mill and warehouse center.

At this time there were other places in Ohio known as Dover, so the town's post office was referred to as Canal Dover, to help distinguish it. In 1842 Dover was incorporated as a village, with Dr. Joseph Slingluff as the first mayor.

Dover remained a milling center for many years; it was incorporated as a city in 1901. A year later, the first public library was formed. In 1908, Tuscarawas County was voted dry, and two breweries and 22 saloons in Dover were put out of business.

In January 1943, an airplane carrying leaflets for a war bonds rally crashed in Dover, killing three, including a 12-year-old boy.

Today, Dover is a lively city of more than 12,000 (the second largest city in the county, behind New Philadelphia), governed by an elected mayor and a City Council. The current mayor is Richard Homrighausen. The city has its own electric generating plant; top employers include Union Hospital, Allied Machine and Engineering and Greer Steel.

Aside from a strong industrial and business base, Dover is known for its charming atmosphere and its grand victorian homes, several of which are listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The crown jewel of the victorians is the J.E. Reeves Home and Museum, home of the Dover Historical Society, a 500-member organization. The 12-room mansion, once the home of prominent Dover industrialist Jeremiah E. Reeves, has been restored to its turn-of-the-century grandness, including a third floor ballroom and a carriage house with restored vehicles.

Famous natives of Dover include Elliott Nugent, a playwright and film director in the 1930s, 40s and 50s (he directed the film version of The Great Gatsby); and Ernest Mooney Warther, a master wood carver. His creations live on at the Warther Museum, where visitors can marvel at Warther's replicas of the Lincoln Funeral Train and a Union Pacific locomotive, wander through Swiss style gardens and visit the button house. Besides the aforementioned attractions, Dover offers visitors many unique opportunities for dining and shopping, as well as a chance to enjoy the historic ambience for which the city is well known.

- information taken from A History of Tuscarawas County - 1988; the Tuscarawas County Community Guide, 2001 edition; and www.doverohio.com. (Jan/Feb 2002 Edition)