Dover, Kansas, courtesy of Google Maps.
Dover, Kansas, is an unincorporated community on Mill Creek southwest of Topeka in Shawnee County.
Before white settlers came to the area in 1855, the land was inhabited by various American Indian tribes.
Alfred Sage, originally from Somersetshire, England, had come to America with his mother, settling in Onondaga, New York. There, he married Mary Bassett, a native of England, in April 1854, and they would eventually have five children. The family moved to Iowa in 1855 and from there to the Dover area, where he settled in July 1856.
Alfred M. Sage.
Alfred arrived with his older brother John when Kansas was still a territory, and pre-empted land at Dover. When they came west, they left their families in Topeka until they could build shacks and start farming operations. Later, John and Alfred developed into very substantial and forceful men of early territorial days. They became associated with James H. Lane, John Brown, and other leaders and helped make Kansas a Free State.
In the fall of 1856, Thomas, Albert Haskell, and John Rush arrived and settled in the neighborhood.
Afterward, another brother, Mark Sage, arrived, and he settled on Mill Creek, where he kept a stage station. In time, there were five Sage brothers and two sisters who eventually settled at Dover.
James Bassett arrived in the area in 1857 from Onondaga County, New York. A native of England, he was one of the organizers of the Dover State Bank and was also among those who established the Dover Cemetery. Around the community, he was lovingly referred to as “Uncle Jim.” That year, John and Noah Gibbs, William Collins, Jacob Orcutt, Daniel Sayers, T.D. Parks and Jacob Haskell also arrived.
From September 1857, Dover formed part of Auburn Township. On October 1, 1860, a voting precinct was made, the polling place being a log schoolhouse.
A post office was established in the town of Dover on April 16, 1863, with John Sage as postmaster. According to one tradition, the post office was named Dover after the Sage home in England; however, another pioneer family in the area claimed they had named it after their home, Dover, New Hampshire.
Alfred Sage saw brief service during the Civil War, participating in the efforts to repel Sterling Price’s raiders in 1864.
Dover Township in Shawnee County, Kansas by Everts & Co., 1887.
Dover Township was established in the fall of 1867. The name was chosen from the area from which the Sage family immigrated from England. Somersetshire was in close proximity to a town called Dover. The first town officers were elected May 5, 1868, and were as follows: Trustee E.M. Hewins; treasurer James Bassett; clerk Henry A. Kellam; justices Jacob Haskell and George Harden; constables M.M. St. John and W. Q. Harris.
Reverend Raymond started the Baptist society with 14 members in 1868. A stone church was built in 1869. The Methodists first worshipped in the Baptist church but later erected a church of their own.
Doctor L.Y. Grubb, a veteran of the United States Army, came to Dover from Ohio in March 1869. He remained in practice until he moved to Topeka in September 1882.
The village of Dover was started in 1870, when Henry Snyder built and opened a store, which he sold to Alfred Sage in 1871. In partnership with A.D. Craig, he opened a general store, which he kept for three years. He then sold his interest and returned to his farm.
In 1872, another store was started by Winkler & Ticknor, which was later run by Rasson & Sage.
Miss Isabel Smith, the daughter of Sidney W. Smith, who established one of the first ferries on the Kansas River, taught the first school.
In 1875, the Congregationalists organized with eight members. The following year, they built a wooden church.
The Sage Inn at Dover, built for Alfred Sage in the fall of 1878, was the area’s hostelry for many years. The large two-story stone house was initially built at a cost of $1,300 as a residence with eight rooms. Mark and John Sage are believed to have crafted the stone building for their brother Alfred. Mark became a well-known stonemason in the area and built many of the stone farm houses, barns, and bridges in Shawnee and Wabaunsee Counties. The two brothers are also credited for their masonry work on the original Kansas Capitol in Topeka from 1866 to 1869.
Alfred Sage, front right, and other family members at the the Sage Inn.
The old Sage Inn, Dover, Kansas, courtesy of Wikipedia.
Although Alfred was principally engaged in farming, he was also involved in the mercantile business in Dover at two different times. According to some accounts, the south wing was added to the building around 1882. For more than 20 years, he ran the only hotel in Dover, which was chiefly used by travelers passing to and from Topeka. Utilized as a residence today, the building still stands at 57th St. and Douglas Rd. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in October 1976.
The Inn was located on the Southwest Trail, which was used as a connection from the Oregon Trail, which passed through Topeka, to the Santa Fe Trail in Council Grove. Along Mission Creek, there were only two places where a wagon could ford the creek, one of which was at Dover. The Sage Inn was the natural halfway point of the trail’s two-day journey by horseback. The Inn was an ideal stopping point to rest or trade out horses, get a bite to eat, and spend the night. Today, K-4, Kansas’ first paved highway, roughly follows the trail’s path.
District 15 School in Dover, Kansas.
J.E. Flickinger, a teacher in District No. 15, Dover, came to Kansas on October 12, 1879, from Union County, Ohio. He also owned a half interest in 82 acres of land, which he farmed two and one-half miles east of Dover.
By the early 1880s, Alfred Sage owned 335 fenced acres, including 130 acres under cultivation. He also had a 40-foot-square barn, cattle stables, a granary, and a stone house half a mile north of his residence that contained eight rooms. He dealt extensively with livestock, keeping 100 to 200 heads of cattle. He also had a fine Percheron-Norman stallion, for which he had paid $2,000. He also had a store room and general stock of goods at the village of Dover, which was in the charge of his son, Squire. He was one of the best farmers in Kansas and realized large yields from his crops.
In 1885, Dover had three churches, a public school, shipped livestock, and a population of 50. It was on the tri-weekly mail stage route from Topeka to Eskridge, to which the mail was delivered to H.J. Loomis, postmaster. Its nearest shipping point and bank location was in Topeka.
In 1898, Alfred Sage built a large general store that he called Somerset Hall after his native home, in Somersetshire, England. However, it is most often referred to as Sage Hall. The main floor was a general store, and the second floor functioned as a community meeting hall. In 1902, the Oddfellows Lodge began using the upstairs hall for its meetings. Upon Alfred’s death in 1905, the Oddfellows purchased the building from the Sage family. Members have met there monthly for 100 years. The building still stands today, which includes a restaurant serving home-cooked meals on Friday nights.
Sommerset Hall in Dover, Kansas.
Sommerset Cafe in Dover, Kansas, courtesy of Google Maps.
During its peak years, Dover had a match factory, a wagon-making business, two grist mills, two blacksmiths, an inn and stagecoach station, a livery stable, a bank, grocery stores, a general store, churches, schools, and three cheese factories, two of which were the largest cheese factories in the U.S.
Around 1900, the Manhattan, Burlingame & Alma Railway was built to Harveyville instead of Dover. This was the clear end of the stagecoach era, and the Inn and station declined rapidly.
In 1910, Dover had a money order post office and telephone connections. It was a trading center for that portion of the county and had a population of 175. The nearest railroad station was in Willard, nine miles to the south.
In 1921, the Methodist, Baptist, and Congregational churches combined to form the Federated Church of Dover, Kansas. It continues to serve an active congregation today.
A small Phillips 66 gas station was built in the late 1920s on the northwestern corner of the K-4 intersection. It later became a Sinclair station. Although it is no longer in operation as a filling station, it was once the base of the local volunteer fire department. The building was refurbished in the 1990s.
The Mission Valley East Elementary School was built in Dover in 1951.
Old Grade School in Dover, Kansas.
Dover High School closed in 1970 when the school district consolidated with the towns of Harveyville and Eskridge in nearby Wabaunsee County. The Dover High School mascot was the Tigers.
Mission Valley East Grade School was also consolidated in 2003 when a new K-8 school was built onto Mission Valley High School. Today, the school serves as a community center.
Dover currently boasts one church, two cemeteries, a tractor supply, a fire station, a post office, a single gas pump, and the Sommerset Cafe.
Just two and a half miles southwest of Dover is Echo Cliff Park, overlooking Mission Creek. This site has a rich Indian history, with archaeological digs unearthing pot shards and arrowheads dating to 800-1000 AD, when the Woodland Indians lived in Kansas. An old iron and wood bridge is an ideal place to fish, and picnic tables are available.
Dover is located on Kansas Highway 4 in the southwest corner of Shawnee County, just a half-mile east of the Wabaunsee County line. It is about 18 miles from the present city limits of Topeka.
©Kathy Alexander/Legends of Kansas, May 2025.
Federated Church of Dover, Kansas.
Also See:
Sources:
1884-1885 Gazetteer and Business Directory
Blackmar, Frank W.; Kansas: A Cyclopedia of State History, Vol I; Standard Publishing Company, Chicago, IL 1912.
Cutler, William G.; History of Kansas; A. T. Andreas, Chicago, IL, 1883.
Cyclopedia of Kansas
Kansas: Kansas State Board of Agriculture, First Biennial Report of the State Board of Agriculture to the Legislature of the State of Kansas, for the Years 1877-78, Rand, McNally & Co., Chicago, IL, 1878.
National Register Nomination – Sage Inn
Rutledge, Jess; Dover, Kansas: More Than Just a Dot on the Map, Chapman Center for Rural Studies, Kansas State University, December 6, 2011.
Wabaunsee County Historical Society & Museum
Wikipedia