"C" is for Clover

"C" is for Clover (York County; 2010 population 5,137). Clover’s history goes back to the 1870s when the Chester and Lenoir Railroad placed a five thousand gallon water tank at the site of the future town. According to local legend, water spilling from the tank yielded a patch of clover on the ground—giving the town its earliest name—Clover Patch. The town was chartered in 1887, with a population of about one hundred—most of the migrants from western York County. Early business included a blacksmith shop, general merchandise stores, a grocery, several boarding houses, and a funeral service. In 1890, the Clover Spinning Mill—the town’s first textile operation—opened. Additional mills opened in the first decades of the twentieth century. In 1985, Duke Energy constructed the Catawba Nuclear Power Plant near Clover.