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Traditions from Col. John
Covington
Source: A History of Marlboro County: With
Traditions and Sketches of Numerous Families,
1897
A chapter of traditions
obtained from Colonel John Covington two months before his death.
The Colonel was a remarkable man, born in "Hebron, the garden spot
of the sacred soil of Marlboro," as he would characterize it, in the
year 1801. He lived a quiet, useful life among his own people, and
when interrogated could recall the names and deeds of many no longer
known on earth. Never stout and strong physically, his cheerful,
hopeful spirits, his joyous, fun-loving temperament, gave him a
young heart in his old age. Although looking, waiting for the call
to join his loved ones gone before to the "shining shore," he was
not averse to telling of the men and women whom he knew in the days
of his youth as the companions of his sports. He was familiar with
many of the traditions of the old people which had been handed down
from parent to child—traditions which should be treasured by those
now living, and in turn, handed down by them to future generations.
The daily newspaper was in those days unknown and the book
agent had not found his way to the homes of Hebron, for "Hebron" it
was called in the Colonel's boyhood. His old uncle, Nathan Thomas,
"Gumfoot," as he was nicknamed from his cork bottom shoe made to
lengthen a leg broken by a fall from his wagon, had, in the century
past, given the beautiful section this name in memory of the fair
inheritance given the patriarch Caleb in reward for his fidelity and
valor.
John, the grandfather of the Colonel, had won the
affections of Elizabeth, the daughter of Rev. Robert Thomas, and,
leaving his five brothers in Richmond county, North Carolina, had
settled upon the north side of Little Pee Dee in Robeson, North
Carolina, and was building up a comfortable home when the revolution
came on. His sympathy with the patriot cause soon made him an object
of dislike to his loyalist neighbors, who stripped him of his means
of living and left him with nothing but his family. Leaving his wife
and babies with her friends, he sought his revenge in the ranks of
the patriot army. When the war ended, he settled upon a farm beside
his brother-in-law, Nathan Thomas, upon the plains of Hebron. His
children were William, "Truss," Robert, Nancy, Polly and Thomas. The
last named married Miss Sallie Cook and left a numerous posterity.
Robert and Tristram seem to have died childless. Nancy married an
Easterlingand Polly a Mr. Conner William married Miss Mary Bridges,
who had previously married a Mr.« Connor, and was the mother of Ira
and Nancy, who became Mrs. FredMc-Daniel. The children of William
Covington were John, Henry, Tristram, Nellie, first wife of Lewis
Spears, and the first wife of Daniel Parham, and the first wife of
Wm. Baggett.
All the sons of Wm. Covington, who was a man of
excellent character, were men of more than ordinary prominence in
the affairs of the country. Tristram, both in his own conduct and in
that of his sons, has commanded the respect and confidence of his
countrymen. He and his oldest son, James, have held positions of
trust and responsibility in county affairs. Henry was for a long
time successor to the Colonel in command of the Hebron company
during "ante-bellum" times. Harris, the only son of Capt. Henry,
arose to a captaincy in the late "war between the States." He was a
lawyer of much prominence, and was considered one of the most
brilliant young men in the country. His friends ran him for a seat
in Congress after "reconstruction," and, while he received a large
vote, he was defeated by the solid colored majority. Gifted though
he was, he died in the prime of life, andhis manly form sleeps in
the same cemetery where lies so many of Hebron's sons.
John
Bridges, the maternal grandfather of the Covingtons, came to
Carolina from the province of Maryland sometime before the
Revolution, and was soon followed by others of his
family.
Our friend, Col. Covington, remembered hearing Frank
Bridges, a kinsman, relate at a dinner party that when a boy he had
enlisted in the army. Because of his size and
extreme youth General Marion kept him about his own person,
sometimes as a courier and sometimes as a cook, and that he it was
who roasted the "historic potatoes" that Marion set before the
British officer. The family of this Frank Bridges removed to
Alabama in after years, and he is supposed to have been the ancestor
of the late Judge Bridges, of Alabama, who married a daughter of
David Bethea, elsewhere mentioned.
John Bridges,
tradition says, left his wife and children behind when he started
south in search of a better country. When his eyes rested
upon the beautiful, well-watered, fertile plains of Hebron, he
concluded that "the better land" was found. Being a good
mechanic, he went to work to build a
house. He hired and sent a messenger back to Maryland for
his wife and children. Mrs. B. was, however, afraid to
make the pilgrimage with a stranger. How did she
know that he was a "true man" and that her husband had sent
him? She declined to undertake the
journey. The messenger insisted that he was a "true
man," and that Bridges had sent him. Finally the
doubting wife consented that if the messenger would return to
Carolina, and take back to her the horse that her husband had
carried from Maryland, that she would know that her husband had sent
him and would believe that he was a "true man" and willingly go with
him. Back to the goodly land of Hebron the
messenger came. Bridges loved his wife and babes
and could rely on the promise. The old Maryland
steed was saddled, and the messenger
furnished with another horse, and across two States he again
pursued his way. When Mrs. Bridges saw
the sleek old charger, token of her husband's love, her
scruples gave way to her devotion to the man she loved, and
mounting, she rode on horseback across two States to the husband of
her youth, bringing her two children with her to her new southern
home. "Heroines in that day"! Yes, and
Rebeccas since the age of Abraham and Isaac. Don't
ask me why Bridges did not go himself. His
grandson did not know. He did say that Mollie, one of those little
ones brought on horseback from Maryland, grew up to womanhood and
first gave her young affections to John Stubbs, and after his death
she became the fifth wife of John David, who had already several
children in his house. She carried three
more and Eliza was born in the forty-sixth year of her
mother's life. Another daughter
of Mr. Bridges, Elizabeth, married Lewis Stubbs, the
great-grandfather of our fellow citizens, William, and Wyriott, and
the late Albert Stubbs.
Sallie, another daughter,
married Jonathan Cottingham, from whom the Hebron family of that
name sprang. Nancy became Mrs. Conner first and then Mrs.
Covington, mother of the Colonel. John Bridges, son of
William, married a sister of Jonathan Cottingham, and bargains of
this sort have been so frequent among the good people of Hebron
until it is hard to find families not re" lated to each other, and
some of them can scarcely tell what kin they are to each
other.
Another old resident of this community was Richard
Edens. He was the father of Allen, long known as a Methodist
preacher, whose first wife was Miss Fuller, a sister of the Henry
Fuller of ginger-cake notoriety. They became the ancestors of
several well-known citizens of Marlboro in later years. Asa, Alfred,
Henry, who went into the late war as Captain of cavalry; Allen, a
lieutenant of the same company, and T. Nelson, Colonel of militia, a
member of the Legislature of the celebrated Wallace House. He was
re-elected in 1878 and again in 1888. After the death of his first
wife, Reverend Edens married Mrs. Ann McDaniel, the daughter of
Nathan Thomas, who bore him two daughters, one of whom is the wife
of Alex. Heustiss.
Jonathan Meekins was an early resident of
this community. He lived and died at the forks of the road, where
Capt. J. T. Covington, who married a granddaughter of Mr. Meekins,
now resides. It is quite probable that Jonathan's parents lived
somewhere in this section, for a sister of his married the elder
James Spears, in 1777. Jonathan, like most of his neighbors, raised
a large family, and possessing large tracts of land, settled them
around him. Their farms were noted for their neat, beautiful
buildings and fences. But amid the changes of time no man of the
name lives now upon the inheritance, although the blood of old
Jonathan yet tells in various families of other names. Philip P., of
Bennettsville, bears the marks and some of the characteristics of
his worthy ancestry. "A place for everything, and everything in its
place." "System, order, the law of life," were prevailing influences
in that home from cellar to garret.
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