THE COVINGTON FAMILY of Note ~ Part I
- westmohney
- 23 hours ago
- 9 min read
General Dockery was always a Union Whig. He deplored the dissolution of that grand old party, which he regarded as the strongest link in the chain which held the States together. . . ~ John P. Wheeler
While many stories abound about the origins of the Covington family in America, the only thing we know for sure is that, in 1712, our grandfather Henry Covington (6GGF) was living on his plantation called Providence in Queen Anne's County, Maryland. Henry left the home plantation to his son, our grandfather John (5GGF). When John Covington died in Maryland in 1744, he left all of his property to his two oldest sons, James (4U) and our grandfather John, Jr. (4GGF). All of John, Sr.'s ten children save one, James who died young, left Maryland to settle in North Carolina.
Below are stories of some Covingtons of note.
the Covingtons and the Hebron Methodist Church
The material I found for the history of the Hebron Methodist Church in Clio, SC was in an article written by Alma (5C1X) and Janie Manning (5C1X). The sisters were daughters of Frank and Clarissa Covington (4C2X) Manning.
Note: Alma died in 2007 at the age of 106.
From the History of Hebron United Methodist Church:
Hebron Church, situated in a rural section of Marlboro County where the planting of cotton has long been king, is three and one-half miles from Clio. Many of the ancestors of those people now living in Clio lived in the Hebron Community and attended Hebron Church. Hebron Church was in the beginning and is now the center of spiritual and social life of the community.
Clio is thirty miles southeast of Rockingham, NC where the Covingtons originally setted.
Prior to the year 1845, this section of Marlboro County known as Hebron had no church or place of public worship. Most of the residents in this community were members at Old Beauty Spot (in Bennettsville). The distance was too great to travel over very rough roads every Sunday. Some of the members of Old Clio Church were willing to unite with them in organizing a church.
Our cousin Thomas S. Covington (2C4X) was the initial driving force behind the church project. He "canvassed the surrounding country and the people responded liberally." The land for the church was donated by our cousin John Covington (3C3X) and his wife Harriet. The first Hebron church was completed in 1848.
In the early days of the church the benches were arranged in a manner that the women sat on the right of the church and the men sat on the left. There was no center aisle, but a wooden barrier separated the seats of the opposite sex. There were two aisles, running the length of the church dividing each section. The only occasion any section was used by the opposite sex was when someone came shouting up the aisle going to the altar. Spirituality was demonstrated much more fervently in those days then at the present time, 1970. It did not take a revival to bring forth shouting in the glory of the Lord. It was a common occurrence when services were held. On the women’s side, the benches often had seat pads the length of the bench. These pads were made of calico stuffed with cotton. They made the benches more comfortable for the older women to sit through long services. . .The early lights were kerosene lamps with lovely white shades hanging from the ceiling. These lamps were not preserved when the church was wired for electric lights. . .The heat came from pot-bellied stoves on each side of the sanctuary. They roasted the people who sat near and did not warm the ones who sat farthest away. These stoves have been replaced by gas stoves today.
Behind the church were rows of hitching posts where the members hitched their horses during the service. Each family used the same hitching post every Sunday. In the late eighteen hundreds, there were bicycles, carts, buggies, and fringed top carriages. This section was very poor during the Civil War and for some years afterwards.
In 1879, the church members saw the need for a newer, larger church. Property for the new building was donated by our cousin Philip Thomas (2C4X) and his wife Rachel. The land where the old church stood became the Hebron Cemetery where over 100 Covingtons are buried.
When an organ was donated to the newly built Hebron Church, our cousin Mattie Covington (2C4X) was one of the first organists of the congregation.
Alfred Dockery
Our cousin Alfred Dockery (2C4X) was born in Rockingham, NC in 1797. He was the grandson of the Thomas Dockery who orchestrated our grandfather John Covington's (4GGF) move to North Carolina. His mother was our cousin Nancy Covington (1C5X), granddaughter of John. According to the book Reminiscences and memoirs of North Carolina and eminent North Carolinians by John P. Wheeler:
His (Alfred's) father, Thomas Dockery (Jr.) was a poor man. He reared a large family of children. . .Thos. Dockery was unable to give his chidlren even at that early day, the simplest elements of an education. Alfred was the eldest of the children and the heavy burnden of providing the means of substinence for his younger brothers and sisters devolved on him. Hence, his education in early life was entirely neglected, and he was often heard to say that he had never attended school for three months consecutively in his life.
In spite of his humble beginnings, Alfred's life as a public servant began early. In 1822, at age 25, he was elected a member of the North Carolina House of Commons. In 1828, he married Sallie Turner and "[b]egan life on a small scale as a farmer. . ." He joined the Whig party which was formed in 1833 and, as a Whig, he was elected to the State Legislature in 1836. According to John Hutchinson, author of No Ordinary Lives, A History of Richmond County, North Carolina 1750-1900, Alfred was known in his political career as "The old wagon boy of the Pee Dee," referring to his underprivileged childhood. In 1834, Alfred also had a hand in the founding of Wake Forest Institute, which later became Wake Forest University.
During this period, however, Alfred put his nose to the grindstone and "by industry and energy amassed quite a handsome estate." By 1850, he owned a plantation with 3,000 acres and 49 slaves. It seems, however, that Alfred never forgot his roots. Hutchinson wrote:
Despite his great success, he remained a plain talker and plain dresser. Comparing him to his opponents, someone commented, "he has no ruffles to his shirt, they have no shirt to their ruffles." The Fayetteville Observer said his speeches often contained incorrect grammar, but he had a way of "clothing good sense and strong arguments in plain language. . .He is one of the people and not one of your mongrel, patent leather, band box politicians."
The 1850s brought upheaval to North Carolina with the war of secession looming large. Alfred initially threw his hat into the ring for the Union:
In 1851, impelled by a strong love for the Union, which he believed to be in peril, he boldly bore the Whig Union flag against the organized power of secession led by Green W. Caldwell. . .and after one of the most animated canvasses that ever occurred inthe State, he was elected to Congress by twelve hundred majority. At the peril of his life in this canvass, (for his District ran along the South Carolina line,) he boldly proclaimed everywhere his undying attachment to the Union, even declaring that, if elected, he "would vote men and money to whip South Carolina back into the Union, if she attempted to secede." The excitement was intense, and he was in constant personal danger, yet nothing could deter him from a stern and fearless performance of duty."
In 1854, Alfred ran for governor of North Carolina but the state had turned decidedly Democrat by then and he was "defeated by only 2,000 majority." Wheeler had this to say about Alfred's efforts:
The people of Western NC cherish his memory with much affection. They owe no small debt of gratitude to the man who did so much in 1854 to coerce the reluctant Democracy of the east and centre into a more active support of internal improvement, without which. . .(they are) deprived of the means and advantages which are indispensible to their progress and prosperity.
Alfred's efforts were of no avail. When war broke out in 1861, North Carolina was the last of the Southern states to join the rebel forces. From Wheeler:
General Dockery was always a Union Whig. He deplored the dissolution of that grand old party, which he regarded as the strongest link in the chain which held the States together. . . He of course, profoundly deprecated secession, and faithfully and earnestly warned the people to the last moment of the awful, far-reaching calamities which must flow from it; yet, when the issue was joined in battle between the two sections, his sympathies were with his native South, and he gave without a murmur six sons to the army, one of whom, John Morehead Dockery (3C3X), a noble youth, fell a victim to camp disease.
Note: The title of general which was ascribed to Alfred seems to be mostly ceremonial. I can find no record of him serving in the military.
Alfred remained a union man after the war and "never having lost his ingrained conviction of the necessity of one great common gov for all the States, he earnestly advised reconciliation and harmony. . ." Union men in North Carolina continuted to look to him as their savior. In 1866, against his wishes he was nominated for the office of governor once again but "he was soundly defeated."
W. J. Peele in his Lives of Distinguished North Carolinians wrote a glowing report of Alfred as a slaveowner. Much of this information came from Alfred's great-granddaughter Elizabeth "Lib" Williams Covington (4C1X).
. . .And the handsome home he built on Cartledge Creek remains a monument to his stature. . .The home was constructed of bricks made on the plantation, which had thousands of acres and hundreds of slaves. The home still stands at the corner of Dockery Road and Cartledge Creek Road and is now listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Miss Lib (4C1X) (Alfred's granddaughter) said Alfred Dockery was a benevolent slave owner who practiced emancipation long before President Abraham Lincoln proclaimed it in the southern states in 1863. . .Dockery educated his slaves -- which was illegal for slave owners at the time -- teaching them to read the Bible and write. And he set education standards leading to their freedom. "He told them if they would learn to read a certain number of chapters in the Bible and to write, he would free them," Miss Lib said. But after the Civil War, many of his slaves chose to continue living on the plantation. "Finally General Dockery called them all together and said they had to leave. So he gave them all a mule and an acre of land" in a nearby area that came to be called "Tom Hills." Dockery also assisted in the founding of Holly Grove Missionary Baptist Church in 1869, which was formed nearby from the black members of Cartledge Creek Baptist Church after the Civil War.
Alfred's beautiful home, located not far from the Cartledge Creek Baptist Church which his grandfather Thomas Dockery founded in 1774, was listed on the National Register of Historic Place in 1986. The home was restored in 1951.
Also located on the Alfred's estate is the Alfred Dockery Cemetery which has 57 graves, most of them Dockerys. Miss Lib and her husband are buried there. Lib, who died in 2008 at age 96, is related to us on both the Dockery and the Covington sides of the family. Her grandfather was Alfred's son Benjamin Franklin Dockery (3C3X) and her grandmother was Mary Ann Covington (2C3X). To cap it all off, Lib's husband was our cousin Jesse Dockery Covington (5C1X)
Alfred died in 1873 at the age of 76. He left to his wife "all that portion of my home and which lies east of the Fairgrounds. . ." To his unmarried daughter Mary, he left a room in the house "known as the hall. . .to be hers as long as she may wish to use it." He also left to Mary a piano and stock in the Great Fall Cotton Factory which was worth $6,000.00. He left land in various parts of the country and for two of them he forgave their debts.
His six granchildren were to receive "the land that Oliver lives on, share and share alike. His grandson Alfred Dockery Morisey, however, must have been a favorite. Young Alfred was "to have at least a thorough English Education to be paid for out of my estate, also $2,000.00 in land or money and $2,000.00 out of the sale of the mill land on Hitchcock Creek."
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