Clover is twinned with the Northern Irish town of Larne on County Antrim's East Coast.

The pivotal American Revolutionary War battle of Kings Mountain occurred approximately eight miles to the west of modern-day Clover, on October 7, 1780.

Prior to Clover's founding, Bethany and Bethel, communities to the west and east, respectively, were primary population centers in northern York District, with well-established Presbyterian churches, post offices and stores serving the area's numerous cotton farms.

The village of Clover began as a railway stop in 1876, midway between Yorkville, and modern-day Gastonia, North Carolina, when the first railroad tracks were laid through the northern section of the county.

In 1873, the Chester and Lenoir Narrow Gauge Railroad was officially chartered and acquired the Kings Mountain rights of way.

By 1875, new, narrow-gauge railway replaced the remnants of the former Kings Mountain line, and the following year the tracks were extended from Yorkville to Gaston County, North Carolina.

A water tank for the railway's steam locomotives was constructed midway between Gastonia and Yorkville.

Henry's Knob, a mountain west of Clover, is the site of a former open-pit mining operation for what was formerly the world's largest deposit of kyanite.