Analysis of information sources in references of the Wikipedia article "Dover, Arkansas" in English language version.
Approved 31st December, 1852
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.
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.
April 8. Staid in Camp all day. Rebs burnt 23 Buildings in Dover
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
April 8. Staid in Camp all day. Rebs burnt 23 Buildings in Dover
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
The would-be waiverer in the case is Ronald Gene Simmons, the Arkansas mass murderer who was sentenced to death in 1988.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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...
.. 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.
The village church was being used as a court house.
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: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) (color poster with map, descriptive text, summary tables, and photographs).