HISTORICAL NOTE

George William Webster Dove was son of John Dove, 1805-1876, who came from Brechin, Scotland to Andover in 1833. With Peter and John Smith, John Dove recreated on the banks of the Shawseen River the flax spinning process which he had been taught in Scotland. He prospered enough to send his only son to Phillips Academy and to the Lawrence Scientific School at Harvard, Class of 1857.

G.W.W. Dove helped organize the local regiment at the beginning of the Civil War, but soon enlisted in the Navy as a Third Assistant Engineer on the U.S.S. Richmond under Farragut. After the war, he helped run Smith and Dove and then became involved in the finances of various Boston trading firms. The failure of one of these, the Pacific Guano Company in 1889, which involved suggestions of fraud by J.M. Glidden, who was probably Dove’s brother-in-law, caused him to retire from business. During his retirement he spent a harrowing summer, 1894, on a mis-managed expedition to Greenland, under the leadership of Frederick A. Cook, which ended with the loss of a ship and the whole expedition returning to Gloucester crammed into a fishing schooner.

Dove married, in 1865, Susan C. Glidden, 1836-1914. They had four children: Marian Glidden, b. 1867; Edith L., 1870-1902; John, b. 1871 and Percival, 1875-1954. Dove died in Andover at the age of 73.

George Dove had five sisters: Isabella, 1831-1887; Ellen C., b. 1838; Marcy A., 1840-1867, who married Francis H. Johnson; Laura S., b. 1842 who married John A. Blanchard; and Clara L., b. 1844 who married William P. Walley. John A. Blanchard, Laura’s husband, was a prominent Boston merchant.

Dove’s grandson, George Dove, b. 1905, son of his younger son Percival, was living in Wichita, Kansas in the 1970’s when he donated these papers and a family genealogy he had compiled.

SCOPE AND CONTENT NOTE

The papers have been divided into seven parts. The first consists of the obituary items of John Dove. The second is made up of material which G.W.W. Dove saved concerning the most important events in his life. These were certificates concerning his Civil War service, a few notes taken on an 1875 European trip, mounted newspaper clippings concerning the failure of the Pacific Guano Company in 1889 and letters to his wife, one letter from the captain of the fishing schooner which rescued them and mounted newspaper clippings. The third part consists of printed items from Andover celebrations and Dove’s membership certificate in the Masons. The fourth part has letters to Dove from various correspondents; his wife, daughter, brother-in-law John A. Blanchard and two unrelated men. The fifth part is a list of common birds, perhaps stuffed; the sixth is his obituary notice. The seventh and last division contains the Dove family Genealogy compiled by his grandson, George Dove.

Separated from this material are some photographs of Dove’s children and a Confederate $20.00 bill.

Processed by Mary F. Morgan, November 1982.