Orchard Street Gatehouse Historical Association

08/31/2026

For those of you interested…September 10, 2026 at 6:30 in the Dover Library. Hosted by the Dover Area Historical Society.

08/27/2026

We are always on the lookout for maps of Dover's early days. Recently we came across the two maps that we took screenshots of. The first is a "Map of Dover, Morris Co., 1825." The second one is a "Map of Lands at or Near Dover, Morris Co., NJ and is dated 1832." Both maps are available online at the Morristown and Morris Township library. Even in the brief span between 1825 and 1832, the town certainly grew.

A couple of things of note is how much the grid layout of the town changed from those very early days. The second map is interesting as above the town of Dover proper, you will see a border between Randolph and Pequannock Townships. Many people firstly don't realize that Dover was initially part of Randolph but also, Rockaway was also originally part of Pequannock. On many birth records, early Dover residents were listed as being born in Pequannock and many think this is quite far away from us here. Back before April 8, 1844, they may have been a born a mile away from present day downtown Dover.

The second map also has a wealth of information on the landowners of early Dover. Names like Hurd, Berry, Chrystal, Ford, and Cooper are very prominent. Unfortunately, maps like these are only available via the internet. We did want to give credit to the Library as they are the owners of the maps and they have made them available to us.

08/22/2026

Here is another plate from the 1887 Robinson Atlas however it is a copy, not an original. This is Plate 22 which shows the main area of Dover including an inset of part of Blackwell and Dickerson. It’s interesting to note that German Street is correctly identified unlike in Plate 23 we posted yesterday. Unlike Plate 23, many of the owners are identified here.

We are really glad to have been able to get these!

08/20/2026

Here is a original page from the 1887 Robinson Atlas. It is Plate 23, Borough of Dover, Randolph Township.

It is interesting to note that many people doing genealogical research frequently run into walls when researching early Dover relatives. There are no birth and death records listing Dover back then because they list Randolph Township since Dover (Mine Hill and Port Oram also) were part of Randolph.

08/20/2026

We just spotted this link on the NJ State Historic Preservation Office in case you didn’t believe us! We are the second “place” featured.

Now we wait on a determination from the National Register of Historic Places as we are on their website as “pending determination” and awaiting public comment.

New Listings | Carrell-Kurzenberger Farm, Little Falls Municipal Hall, and Orchard Street Gatehouse, listed August 5, 2026.

08/18/2026

As a follow up to our post last week, please watch the video below that gives a bit more information on Jabez and Hannah Mills and their family. This video is unscripted and unedited so please forgive any pauses. There is a Civil War Veteran and a pair of semi-famous opera singers in this plot.

08/15/2026

While we have brought it up before, we can finally say for certain that the story of William Young, Dover’s first baker swapping an acre of property to the cemetery association in exchange for other property closer to the center of town on Orchard Street is officially debunked!

About a year ago, we went to the Map Room of the county clerk’s office and reviewed original deeds in their possession. There are three property transfers to the Cemetery Association and none of them were from Mr. Young. Two of the property transfers, nearly all of the property in fact come from Jabez and Hannah Mills. In fact one of these properties is nearly exactly one acre. The other property is a small piece approximately 75 feet by 50 feet that came from John H. Lyon and his wife Mary. The dates of transfer are February 22, 1855 and April 27, 1855 for the Mills properties and November 30, 1855 for the Lyon property.

This was corroborated when we requested official copies of these deeds from the County Clerk’s office. We even had a nice long chat with County Clerk Ann Grossi.

We have no idea where the esteemed Charles Platt got his information for his seminal 1914 book “Dover History” but since William Young died nearly 39 years before the book was written, we can only speculate that since William Young was the first president of the Dover Cemetery Association, some facts got mixed up.

Anyway, myth busted.