Editing Dover, Arkansas (section)

==History==
Dover was either named by British aristocrats in the 1830s for [[Dover|Dover, Kent, England]] or by Stephen Rye in 1832 for [[Dover, Tennessee]].<ref>{{Cite book | last = Deane | first = Ernie | author-link = Ernie Deane | title = Arkansas Place Names | publisher = The Ozarks Mountaineer | year = 1986 | location = Branson, Missouri | pages = 83 }}</ref> Incorporated December 31, 1852,<ref>{{cite book |title=An act to incorporate the Town of Dover, in Pope County |date=1853 |publisher=R. L. Pegues, State Printer |location=Akrkadephia, Arkansas |pages=280–283 |edition=Acts Passed at the Ninth Session of the General Assembly of the State of Arkansas |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TY9IAAAAYAAJ&dq=%22an+act+to+incorporate+the+town+of+Dover%22+arkansas+pope&pg=PA280 |access-date=December 23, 2022 |quote=Approved 31st December, 1852}}</ref> Dover was the county seat for Pope County from 1841 to 1887<ref>{{cite news |title=Election Abstract |work=Russellville Democrat |date=March 23, 1887 |page=3 |quote=Russellville's Majority 128}}</ref> with the county's brick courthouse on the square bounded by present-day Camp, Market, Water, and Elizabeth Streets.<ref>{{cite news |title=The Court House at Dover |url=https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83030313/1872-09-30/ed-1/seq-5/ |access-date=March 7, 2023 |work=The New York Herald |issue=275 Vol XXVII |publisher=James Gordon Bennett |date=September 30, 1872 |location=New York |page=5 |quote=In the middle of the village, upon a square, stands the naked brick courthouse... It is fifty feet square, two stories high, and the roof rises from the four sides to the centre.  In each side is a door, and from each of these doors the spectator can see four streets of the village, coming into the square at the corners.}}</ref>

During the American Civil War, what little civil authority there was collapsed throughout Arkansas. By 1863, in most of the state, travel was dangerous, farming hazardous, and county government inoperative.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Dougan |first1=Michael B. |title=Confederate Arkansas - The People and Policies of a Frontier State in Wartime |date=1976 |publisher=The University of Alabama Press |location=Tuscalooosa, Alabama |isbn=9780817305222 |page=96 |chapter=7) The Third Year of the War}}</ref> Pope County records at Dover were moved to a cave for protection. Several skirmishes took place in the county, but there were no major engagements. On April 8, 1865, Dover, including the courthouse, was burned.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Gillet |first1=Orville |last2=Worley |first2=Ted R. |title=Diary of Orville Gillet, U. S. A., 1864-1865 |journal=The Arkansas Historical Quarterly |date=Summer 1958 |volume=17 |issue=2 |page=193 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/40038015 |access-date=January 24, 2023 |publisher=Arkansas Historical Association |location=Little Rock and Fayetteville, Arkansas |doi=10.2307/40038015 |jstor=40038015 |quote=April 8. Staid in Camp all day. Rebs burnt 23 Buildings in Dover}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Dover (Pope County) |url=https://encyclopediaofarkansas.net/entries/dover-pope-county-961/ |website=Encyclopedia of Arkansas |publisher=Central Arkansas Library System |access-date=January 18, 2023}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=Arkansas's Iliad |url=https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83030313/1872-09-30/ed-1/seq-5/ |access-date=February 2, 2023 |work=The New York Herald |issue=13189 |publisher=James Gordon Bennett Jr. |date=September 30, 1872 |page=7 |quote=We lost nearly all our town in the war. Our own boys burned it to keep the federals from occupying it, after they had driven out the women and children.}}</ref>

During the [[Reconstruction era#Military Reconstruction|military reconstruction period]] (1867-1868), companies E and G of the Nineteenth Infantry<ref>{{cite book |title=Executive Documents, House of Representatives, 2nd Session of the 40th Congress, Vol.2 |date=1868 |publisher=U. S. Government Printing Office |location=Washington, D. C. |page=377 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kn5ZAAAAcAAJ&dq=%22companies+E+and+G,+Dover,+Arkansas+%22&pg=PA377 |access-date=January 31, 2023 |chapter=Report of Major General Ord, Commanding Fourth Military District, September 27, 1867}}</ref> were stationed in Pope County and headquartered at Dover for a year and a half.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Reynolds |first1=Thomas J |editor1-last=Reynolds |editor1-first=John Hugh |title=Publications of The Arkansas Historical Association, Vol. 2 |date=1908 |publisher=Arkansas Historical Association |location=Fayetteville, Arkansas |pages=174–198 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LdUTAAAAYAAJ&dq=%22Pope+County+Militia+War%22&pg=PA174 |access-date=January 16, 2023 |quote=In the spring of 1867 two companies of 'regulars' under the command of Major Mulligan, United States army, came to Dover, the county seat, to aid the civil authorities and in the interest of the Freedman's Bureau. These soldiers had a welcome reception and after a year and a half departed, regretted by all. The officers of the companies, by their gentlemanly bearing and conservative methods, made friends in every class of people. |chapter=Pope County Militia War}}</ref>  Arkansas became the second former Confederate state to be [[Arkansas in the American Civil War#Restoration to Union|fully restored]] to the Union in June 1868. However, political and social stability was still years away.

Between 1865 and 1870, at least four county officials were assassinated:<ref>{{cite news |title=Arkansas's Iliad |url=https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83030313/1872-09-30/ed-1/seq-5/ |access-date=February 2, 2023 |work=The New York Herald |issue=13189 |publisher=James Gordon Bennett Jr. |date=September 30, 1872 |page=7 |quote=In this period, several county officials were killed, although the citizens disavow the acts, and say that they were private assassinations arising from personal causes. }}</ref> Sheriff Archibald D. Napier and Deputy Sheriff Albert Parks on October 24, 1865, County Clerk William Stout on December 4, 1865, and Sheriff W. Morris Williams on August 20, 1866.

On March 1, 1870, the new Pope County jail in Dover was burned.<ref>{{cite news |title=Pope |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/131014919/ |access-date=March 12, 2023 |work=Daily Arkansas Gazette |issue=90, 51st year |publisher=Woodruff & Blocher |date=March 8, 1870 |location=Little Rock, Arkansas |page=2 |quote=On Tuesday night the jail was discovered in flames and in a few minutes was destroyed. The building had just been completed at a cost of $2500. The fire was evidently the work of an incendiary, as the locks were found in the flames with the bolts all drawn. There were four prisoners confined in the jail, all of whom escaped.}}</ref> A man named Glover later claimed responsibility.<ref>{{cite news |title=Killings of Drake and Glover |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/39808755/ |access-date=March 12, 2023 |work=Memphis Daily Appeal |issue=275 Vol 32 |date=September 25, 1872 |location=Memphis, Tennessee |page=1 |quote=Glover... boasted... of what he had done, and told them that he had burned several jails in the western counties since had burned the one at Dover...}}</ref>

As the county seat, Dover played a significant role during period of a little over seven months in 1872 and 1873 that came to be known as the [[Pope County Militia War]], with several significant incidents occurring in or near the town. However, there were no battles or skirmishes.  There were no engagements between organized opponents of any kind.  Instead, an irregular armed group sometimes referred to as a militia,<ref>{{cite news |title=Arkansas's Iliad |url=https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83030313/1872-09-30/ed-1/seq-5/ |access-date=February 2, 2023 |work=The New York Herald |issue=13189 |publisher=James Gordon Bennett Jr. |date=September 30, 1872 |page=7 |quote=After the new and disfranchising constitution went into operation a lull ensued, and for some time everything was quiet, but the county officials of Pope, who were all republicans and secret leaguers, grew more and more obnoxious to the people and both sides were surly, muttering and threatening. The native republicans, who go by the name of ‘Mountain Feds,’ took sides with their Sheriff and County Clerk, and as the time of another election drew near the county authorities claimed that the insecurity of the times demanded martial law in Pope County.}}</ref> and headed by four county officers, exerted excessive and harsh control over the county, including threats to burn the county seat.<ref>{{cite book |author1-link=Affairs |title=Affairs in Arkansas, Reports of Committees of the House Of Representatives, 2nd Session of the 43rd Congress. 1875-'75 |date=1875 |access-date=January 6, 2023 |pages= 97–98 |publisher=Government Printing Office |location=Washington, D. C. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zqQFAAAAQAAJ |quote=Deposition of William F. Grove, taken August 6, 1873...On arriving in sight of Dover I saw quite a number of armed men drawn up in the street, and on arriving in town found there between seventy and eighty men. I asked them why they were armed. They told me that Dodson had threatened to kill some of them and burn the town down. I asked them if they had any idea that he would kill any of them if he got them, or burn their town down. They said they did, for he had already partially carried out one threat by killing Hale and Tucker.}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=Affidavit of Perry West and G. W. Cox |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/132775918/ |access-date=March 12, 2023 |work=Daily Arkansas Gazette |issue=197, 53rd year |publisher=Woodruff, Blocher & Adams |date=July 17, 1872 |location=Little Rock, Arkansas |page=2 |quote=".. on or about the 15th of April, 1872, John Williams, deputy sheriff, gave me orders to shoot or lead Nat Hale, John Hale, Reese Hogan, Harry Pointer, and John Young, saying, 'In fact, shoot any of them that impose upon you, come and give yourself up, and the governor will pardon you,' and he went so far as to say that he was going to get rid of the McCune and Hale outfit... The said John Williams said that he had orders to burn Dover, and he intended to do it."}} Note 1: West and Cox were members of John Williams' militia company Note 2: The affidavit was first published in the ''Russellville Tribune'' which was burned with all its back issues on September 8, 1872.</ref>  By the end of the period, three of the four officials were dead.

Winds from a storm on March 8, 1878, damaged the county courthouse in Dover, rendering it "unfit and unsafe".<ref>{{cite news |title=The Court House 'Gone Up' |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/893074070/?terms=court |access-date=March 24, 2023 |work=The Russellville Democrat |issue=8 Vol IV |publisher=The Russellville Printing Association |date=March 14, 1878 |location=Russellville, Arkansas |page=3}}</ref> With the county having no funds to repair the structure, its condition became a consideration for some in the issue of moving the county seat, with citizens of Russellville offering a building site and $2,500 to build a new courthouse there at no cost to the taxpayers.<ref>{{cite news |title=Come. Let Us Reason Together |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/893074526/?terms=%22county%20seat%22 |access-date=March 24, 2023 |work=The Russellville Democrat |issue=32 Vol IV |publisher=The Russellville Printing Association |date=August 29, 1878 |location=Russellville, Arkansas |page=2}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=Here it is 'In Black and White' - Russellville Means to do Just What She Says |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/893074522/?terms=%22county%20seat%22 |access-date=March 24, 2023 |work=The Russellville Democrat |issue=32 Vol IV |publisher=The Russellville Printing Association |date=August 29, 1878 |location=Russellville, Arkansas |page=1}}</ref> A church was used for a courtroom during terms of the circuit court while the courthouse was unavailable.<ref>{{cite news |title=Circuit Court |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/893072503/?terms=%22court%20house%22 |access-date=March 26, 2023 |work=The Russellville Democrat |issue=35 Vol V |publisher=The Russellville Printing Association |date=September 25, 1879 |location=Russellville, Arkansas |page=3 |quote=The village church was being used as a court house.}}</ref>

With the new railroad running eight miles south of the county seat at Dover and the gradual relocation of county commerce toward Russellville and Atkins, [[Pope County, Arkansas#County Seat move from Dover to Russellville|moving the county seat]] was inevitable. Russellville was developing into the business center of the county<ref>{{cite news |title=Where should the county seat be located? |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/893074469/?terms=%22convienient%20location%22 |access-date=March 27, 2023 |work=The Russellville Democrat |publisher=The Russellville Printing Association |date=August 8, 1878 |location=Russellville, Arkansas |page=2}}</ref> and a newer town, Atkins, was growing fast and would compete as a potential new location for the county seat.

It took 15 years from an act from the Arkansas General Assembly moving the county seat to Russellville—reversed the next year, sending it back to Dover—until the new courthouse was completed in Russellville. Dover had been selected in the 1840s for its more central location in the county. Thirty years later, the southern townships held the majority of the population and paid a large majority of the taxes.<ref>{{cite news |title=Fine Cuts |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/893074431/?terms=%22county%20seat%22 |access-date=March 24, 2023 |work=The Russellville Democrat |issue=26 Vol IV |publisher=The Russellville Printing Association |date=July 25, 1878 |location=Russellville, Arkansas |page=3}}</ref>

After a judge ordered a March 19, 1887, special election, the county seat was moved from Dover to Russellville after the Arkansas Supreme Court affirmed the judge's ruling on June 4, 1887.

More than half of the businesses in the commercial part of town were lost to fire on February 15, 1930, as were at least 8 homes on two city blocks. At least 11 businesses were lost or badly damaged. A fire truck from neighboring Russellville helped in fighting the fire, but with no municipal fire water system, the truck had to draw water from a large well at a Dover business. Fighting the blaze, thought to have originated as a grass fire, was hampered by the lack of a water supply and high winds. The buildings lost were of wood frame construction.<ref>{{cite news |title=Half of Dover Destroyed by Fire |work=The Star Progress |date=February 20, 1930 |location=Berryville, Arkansas |quote=Flames Cause $100,000 Loss in One-Time Pope County Seat}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=Fire Sweeps Whole Town of Dover |work=Harrison Daily Times |issue=116 |date=February 15, 1930 |location=Harrison, Arkansas |page=1}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=Entire Town of Dover, Arkansas Threatened by Fire |work=Fayetteville Daily Democrat |volume=36|issue=73 |date=February 15, 1930 |page=1}}</ref>

=== The Simmons massacre ===
On December 22 and 26, 1987, [[Ronald Gene Simmons]], of near Dover, killed all fourteen members of his family during a [[Christmas]] reunion at the Simmons property 5 miles north of Dover. Two days later, he continued his killing spree in the county seat of [[Russellville, Arkansas|Russellville]], having targeted previous employers and co-workers, killing two and wounding two more.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Fox |first1=James Alan |last2=Levin |first2=Jack |title=Firing Back: The Growing Threat of Workplace Homicide |journal=The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science |date=November 1994 |volume=536 |issue=536 |page=23 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/1048005 |access-date=March 7, 2023 |publisher=Sage Publications, Inc. in association with the American Academy of Political and Social Science|doi=10.1177/0002716294536001002 |jstor=1048005 |s2cid=144229494 }}</ref> Simmons was arrested without resistance, was [[Capital punishment|sentenced to death]] on December 10, 1989,<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Brown |first1=Paul E. |title=Third Party Standing: "Next Friends" as Enemies: Third Party Petitions for Capital Defendants Wishing to Waive Appeal |journal=The Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology |date=Winter 1991 |volume=81 |issue=4 |pages=982–984, 990–996 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/1143734 |access-date=March 7, 2023 |publisher=Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law |doi=10.2307/1143734 |jstor=1143734 |quote=I, Ronald Gene Simmons, Sr.,  want it to be known that it is my wish and my desire that absolutely  no action by anybody be taken to appeal or in any way change this  sentence. It is further respectfully requested that this sentence be carried out expeditiously}}</ref> waived mandatory appellate review,<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Reske |first1=Henry |title=Death Wish, Supreme Court Preview |journal=ABA Journal |date=February 1990 |volume=76 |issue=2 |page=36 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/20760883 |access-date=March 7, 2023 |publisher=American Bar Association |jstor=20760883 |quote=The would-be waiverer in the case is Ronald Gene Simmons, the  Arkansas mass murderer who was sentenced to death in 1988.}}</ref> and executed on June 25, 1990, the quickest sentence-to-execution time in the United States since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976.