Georgia Natural Wonder #91 – Covington – Newton County (Part 2). 632

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Georgia Natural Wonder #91 – Covington – Newton County (Part 2)

OK we covered the Natural Wonder #91 yesterday with Factory Shoals and the Alcovy River. Today we history tangent on .......

Newton County lies approximately thirty miles east of Atlanta along Interstate 20. Its irregular star shape encompasses 276.4 miles. Named for Sergeant John Newton, a Revolutionary War (1775-83) hero, the county was formed on December 24, 1821, from parts of Henry, Jasper, and Walton counties. In 1821 the center of the area's activity was a settlement called Winton at the Brick Store, a general store and stagecoach stop. The Brick Store still stands, but U.S. Highway 278, which alternately parallels and crisscrosses the newer Interstate 20 eastward to Augusta, now lies over the stagecoach route.


In 1821 the center of the Newton County's activity was a settlement called Winton at the Brick Store, a general store and stagecoach stop. The Brick Store still stands.

Tangent - Sgt. John Newton (1755–1780) was a soldier of the American Revolutionary War who was popularized by Parson Weems in his school books in the early 19th century. Newton served under Brigadier General Francis Marion, the famous "Swamp Fox". Today Newton appears to have been a very minor figure. However, place names across the United States demonstrate his former fame. He is considered one of the popular fictionalized heroic enlisted men of the American Revolution.



Parson Weems's has Sgt. Newton bravely save a group of American prisoners from execution by capturing their British guards at the 1779 Siege of Savannah. However, no contemporary account of this rescue exist, and the only source is the very unreliable Parson Weems. In fact, according to Lieutenant Colonel Peter Horry, who took part in the campaign, "Newton was a Thief & a Villain."


It was Parson Weems who gave us the story of George Washington chopping down the Cherry tree and not lying about it.

Sgt. Newton's tale is similar to the true story of Sergeant William Jasper, who was a genuine hero but was exaggerated by Weems. Several states have a Newton and Jasper county adjacent to each other, as though they were regarded as a pair. Several other states have a Jasper County with a county seat of Newton, or vice versa.


Sergeant Jasper statue in Savannah.

State law required that the seat of the new county be as close as possible to the geographical center of the county, so a site between the Ulcoufatchee (later Alcovy) and Yellow rivers was designated the county seat, and the surrounding lots were auctioned. Dried Indian Creek, so named from the settlers' discovery of the body of an Indian tied to a tree and dried by the sun, crossed this land. The new town was named Newtonsboro, but eight months later, in December 1822, the name was changed to Covington, in honor of General Leonard Covington, a hero in the War of 1812 (1812-15).


Leonard Covington.

Tangent Leonard Wailes Covington (October 30, 1768 – November 14, 1813) was a United States Army Brigadier General and a member of the United States House of Representatives. Born in Aquasco, Prince George's County, in what was then the British Province of Maryland, Leonard Covington joined the United States Army as a Cornet in March 1792. He was promoted to Captain in 1794 and served in the Northwest Indian War (1785–1795) under Anthony Wayne, where he distinguished himself at Fort Recovery and the Battle of Fallen Timbers. He resigned from the military at the conclusion of the Northwest Indian War.



In 1809, Leonard Covington returned to the Army as Colonel of light dragoons, having served many years in the Maryland House of Delegates and in 1805–1807 as a Representative (Democratic-Republican Party) in the Ninth Congress. He was in command at Fort Adams on the lower Mississippi River and participated in the December 1810 takeover by the United States of the Republic of West Florida, in today's Florida Parishes, Louisiana. He served in the War of 1812, being promoted to Brigadier General in August 1813. Covington was mortally wounded in the Battle of Crysler's Farm and died three days later at French Mills, Franklin County, New York.


Battle of Crysler's Farm

At the time of his death, Brig. Gen. Covington and his family were residents of Washington, the capital of the Mississippi Territory, in a home named Propinquity. It was built in 1810 near the military installation Fort Washington (originally Fort Dearborn), where Covington commanded the Regiment of Light Dragoons. Mrs. Leonard Covington was the former Rebecca Mackall, his first cousin and a relative of the family of General James Wilkinson. The Covingtons had at least four children: Levin, Rebecca, Benjamin, and Edward.


Propinquity Plantation Mississippi.

The county's other incorporated towns date from throughout the nineteenth century. Newborn was settled around 1819 while still part of Jasper County. Newborn, first known as Sandtown, was settled by Rufus Broome, his bride Nancy Pitts of Warrenton and two of her brothers, Nestor and John Pitts.  Documents as early as 1839 indicate the name "Newborn".


Downtown Newborn.

Porterdale, settled in the 1820s to establish a foundry, held to its industrial roots until late in the twentieth century, when its large textile mill finally closed.


Porterdale shoals or at least the Yellow River will be a future GNW. There are spots I have visited in Conyers and Annistown Road (bout broke my teenage rib).

Porterdale, Ga is one of many small towns that were based around textile mills. The mills were the centerpiece of the area and employed the majority of the local population. These towns were largely founded in the early 1900s. The advent of the global economy has sent these "mill towns" into economic collapse in the latter part of the 20th century. Porterdale is mainly known for its textile mill which still runs today. Formerly the BIBB co. later Dan River INC. Porterdale resides straddling the Yellow River where the Mill used to get its power from. The old part of the mill which is alongside the dam on the Yellow River is Mill Loft apartments. In the eighties and nineties, the mill alongside the dam was a flea market that housed many events including wrestling. The nature of the closeness of the houses in this "mill town" extend to the closeness of the community.



Famous people from Porterdale include

Robert C. Blankenship was decorated with the Dutch Military Order of William (the Dutch equivalent of the Congressional Medal of Honor) for his bravery in Operation Market Garden; born in Porterdale.

Raymond Moody psychologist and author who coined the term near-death experience; born in Porterdale.


Moody.

Oxford was incorporated in 1839 to support Emory College, chartered in 1836; a second campus, opened in Atlanta in 1919, became Emory University, and the original campus is now called Oxford College of Emory University.


Toast to Coca- Cola.

The town was named after Oxford University, the alma mater of the founders of Oxford College. The Dukes of Hazzard filmed its TV series opening credits car jump on the grounds of the college.



Orna Villa, a mansion, was built in 1825, and was used as a hospital during the Civil War.



Heck Thomas – Frontier lawman was born in Oxford.



Cora Mae Bryant blues musician is also from Oxford.

Top Row Dawg addendum to Oxford - Kitty’s Cottage. The split of the American Methodist Church. What became known as "The Methodist Civil War" was not resolved until May 10, 1939.


Kitty’s cottage.

Mansfield flourished from about 1896. I passed through this little town with Pop on way to let his bird dogs run at the Charlie Elliott Wildlife Center (future GNW) and passed this historical sign.


The text is as follows….

Sherrod Malone Smith (1891-1949) played 23 years of professional baseball including 14 seasons in the major leagues. Babe Ruth, another left-hander, said that he was, “the greatest pick-off artist who ever lived.” He played in Pittsburgh, Brooklyn and Cleveland and in the 2,052 innings he pitched, only two bases were stolen. Smith posted a 115/118 won/lost record in the majors with 21 saves, and a record of 67/39 in the minors. He pitched 30-1/3 innings in three World Series games with a 0.89 earned-run average. His career batting average was .233. In 1916, he pitched against Babe Ruth in a 14 inning World Series games in which Ruth failed to get a hit and struck out twice. Smith doubled once in his five trips against Ruth.



“Sherry” Smith was born in Monticello and played town ball in Mansfield, Madison, Elberton, and Newborn before turning pro in 1910. He managed the Macon Peaches in his last pro season in 1932. Smith served in the Army during World War I, and was the Chief of Police in Porterdale and Madison. Smith and his wife, Addilu (a native of Mansfield) are both buried in Mansfield. He was inducted into the Georgia Sports Hall of Fame in February, 1980.



Newton County's unincorporated areas today are Almon, Brick Store, Cornish Mountain, Dial Town, Gum Creek, Magnet, Rocky Plains, Salem, Starrsville, and Stewart.



In 1864 Union General William T. Sherman and his troops passed through Covington and Oxford on the way to Savannah. Numerous historical markers in the county attest to related events, and several well-known written accounts describe this period.



He evidently didn’t burn Covington.



This city has some really pretty homes still standing from Civil War.



Newton County has had a railroad since 1836, when planters, mill owners, and professional men organized a line from Madison, east of Covington, to the Chattahoochee River near Atlanta. This route is still heavily traveled by long freight trains.



Covington Municipal Airport, located near a large industrial park north of Covington, provides facilities for small planes, and I-20 offers easy access to Interstates 75 and 85, and to Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport.


The Newton County Courthouse in Covington was built in 1884 on the site of the previous courthouse. The building was designed in the Second Empire style by Bruce and Morgan, the most successful architectural firm in Georgia of its time.

Though the cotton plantations are long gone, some farms remain in the county.


Gaither plantation home.

Due to the location, transportation connections, and ready labor force, many employers find the county appealing. The county's population has steadily grown since the mid-twentieth century. According to the U.S. census, the population in 2010 was 99,958, an increase from the 2000 population of 62,001. Farmland has been supplanted by housing developments, as families have moved in either to work in the county's industry or to commute to jobs in Atlanta.



In recent years Newton County's landmarks and landscape have become recognizable to people across the United States. Two popular television series of the late twentieth century, The Dukes of Hazzard and In the Heat of the Night, were filmed in the county. Behind the Scenes link Heat of Night.



Also shot  were scenes from various motion pictures, including My Cousin Vinny (1992), and several television specials.


Mansfield Georgia site of Pool Hall in movie.

Today’s GNW gal Catherine Bach.

What happened to that Sanders kid she ask?