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History · Dover Township

17% of Dover Township’s homes were built before 1940

Below: maps from 1957 on.

0on the National Register
17%homes built before 1940
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What stands out about Dover Township’s past

Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.

A history waiting to be writtenNo old photos of Dover Township are in the public archives yet. The rest are in attics and albums.
★ What stands out · Help out

Start Dover Township’s collection

The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Dover Township’s history is told.

Decades since 1900 with photos
00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s
0 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.
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The story so far

Dover Township, in brief

Wikipedia doesn’t have a history of Dover Township yet. The photos, dates and memories neighbors add here are how it gets written.

Dover Township is a civil township of Lake County in the U.S. state of Michigan. The population was 383 at the 2020 census.

Between the 2010 and 2020 censuses its population fell from 395 to 383 (-3%).

Intro from Wikipedia. Population: U.S. Census Bureau.

Timeline

Dover Township, 1887 to 1957

Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.

  1. 19th century
  2. 1887Post officeThe Bristol post office opens
  3. 20th century
  4. 1904Post officeThe Bristol post office closes
  5. 1957On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
By decade

No old photos in the archives yet

Weddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.

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On the map

Dover Township on the map in 1957

The U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Dover Township.

Dover Township on the 1957 USGS map1957Luther sheet · 1:62,500

U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Dover Township.

Places that used to be

Lost post offices, old corners, places now gone and burying grounds

Another post office, Bristol, opened and closed inside today’s town.

Hamlets and corners on the map
BristolSkookum
Gone or out of use
Bristol Post Officepost office
1cemetery inside Dover Township
Bristol

US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).

Stories next door

History across the town line

Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.

Ellsworth Township1 historic placenot graded: under 1,000 residents or part of its townNewkirk TownshipIts storynot graded: under 1,000 residents or part of its townBurdell TownshipIts storyB−Henderson TownshipIts storynot graded: under 1,000 residents or part of its town

Questions about Dover Township’s history

Memory lane

What the archives can’t tell you, neighbors can.

Town Square →
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Sources

Where this page comes from

Founding dates: Wikidata, Wikipedia, the U.S. post office records of Blevins & Helbock (CC0) and the Census. Homes by year built: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register of Historic Places: National Park Service (list of May 22, 2026). Old photos, postcards and papers: Wikimedia Commons, the Library of Congress and other public archives, credited on each item’s page. Maps: U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (via Esri) and Sanborn fire-insurance maps (Library of Congress). History text and census tables: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0). Places that used to be: USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021). How TownRatings grades history →

From U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, the US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock) and the USGS Geographic Names Information System. Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.