User:CNJECulver/Dover (ghost town), Iowa County, Wisconsin

The village of Dover was an early Wisconsin community in northeastern Iowa County, Wisconsin. Established in the mid-1840s largely by British emigrants, it lay in Arena Township, nestled against the Iowa/Dane County line, along what is today Hwy 14. By the mid-1850s Dover had reached its peak population. But the decision of the ____ Railroad, which was busy extending its line from Madison to Prairie du Chien, to locate a terminal at nearby Mazomanie led to Dover's demise, and by the 1870s few residents remained. Of the town itself, all that remains today are a school house, now relocated, the private Dover Culver Cemetery with eight graves, and a roadside historical marker.

History
The industrial revolution sweeping England in the early 19th century spawned widespread social unrest throughout the British Isles. Reflecting the general disease afflicting society of the era, a number of emigration societies were formed to facilitate emigration, largely to America. Among these was the British Temperance and Emigration Society.

The British Temperance and Emigration Society
Formally titled the British Temperance Emigration Society and Savings Fund, the BTES was organized in December, 1842 and was headquartered in Liverpool. To raise funds to purchase land in America, the Society was organized as a joint stock company, and member shareholders were required to pay one shilling per week, which entitled them to an eighty acre lot with "improvements", including a cabin, and land cleared and tilled. By the winter of 1843 the Society had raised sufficient funds for an initial purchase and, having heard the virtues of Wisconsin extolled by itinerant lecturers, Society trustees selected the area around Arena; by Christmas agents of the Society were in Wisconsin looking to obtain suitable property.

Emigrant Arrivals
Land having been obtained and prepared, the first group of BTES emigrants, selected by lottery, set sail from Liverpool in the spring of 1844, arriving in Gorstville (as Dover was called at the time) in early summer of that year. In total, the Society sent eighty four individuals to the Dover area in 1844, on two ships: the Patrick Henry and the Cairo, both departing Liverpool on April 22nd. The Patrick Henry arrived in New York on May 27th, while the Cairo docked at Boston three days laters. The journey from there proceeded overland to Wisconsin, and required about three weeks.

William Kittle, in his History of the Township and Village of Mazomanie, details a total of eighty four individuals, comprising fourteen families, arriving in 1844 under the auspices of the Society. With a further a further two hundred individuals, comprising fifty families, arriving under Society auspices in 1845 (though less than half settled in the vicinity of Dover). Altogether, according to Kittle, a total of six hundred and ninety-one persons came from England during the years from 1843 to 1850. Of those, two hundred and fourteen settled in Arena, near Dover.

Demographics
Because the British Temperance and Emigration Society solicited membership largely from midlands of England, with two-thirds of the members from West Riding of Yorkshire County, Lancashire and Cheshire, in the early years, Dover settlers hailed largely from these parts. Later, as the community grew and attracted settlers from other areas, and as subsequent generations were born, the percentage of foreign-born residents declined.

1847 Wisconsin Territory Census
Taken on December 1st the year before Wisconsin obtained statehood, the 1847 territorial census suggests a population of 91 persons living in the village of Dover, consisting in twenty four families, of which 52 were male and 39 female.

1850 Census
The 1850 census of Arena Township was conducted from Sept. 4 to 7, 1850. The results suggest Dover was home to twenty three families, with a total population of 119, 56 of which were male and 63 female. One third of the population was foreign born, thirty four of those from England. The average age was 18.2, with a median age of 14. Median family size was five.

1855 State Census
A state census of Arena Township was conducted June 1, 1855, and indicated Dover population had increased to 116 males and 99 females, comprising fifty five families. Of the 215 residents, 66 were foreign born. Median family size was four, with 41 single-person households. This would be the zenith of Dover's population.

1860 Census
By 1855 Mazomanie had been selected for the new railroad, with the first train arriving there on June 7, 1856. While disambiguating the Dover population from the Arena Township census data is difficult, the data seems to suggest an 1860 population of 75, a steep decline from the 215 residents of five years earlier. There were fifteen families. Average age was 27.2, with the median 21.

1870 Census
It is not possible to distinguish the Dover population in the 1870 Arena Township census data. Frank Wolf suggests a total population of forty four in ten families, of which six were farming families.

Notable natives and residents
John Appleby, inventor of the knotter on the grain binder.