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Covington
History – City of Covington in Texas |
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Map:
Official Geographical Location:
32°10′37″N, 97°15′26″W (32.176850, -97.257104
Geographical Description:
The city has a total area of 0.8 square miles (2.1 km²), all of it land.
Situated on Aquilla Creek, South of Cleburne, between Fort Worth and Waco,
North East of Lake Whitney, West of U.S. Route 81 in Hill County
Covington is on State Highway 171 twelve miles north of Hillsboro in
north central Hill County.
History:
The community originated through the efforts of James J. Gathings, who moved to Texas from Mississippi in 1852 and
purchased thousands of acres of land near what is now the Covington townsite.
He established a large and successful farming and ranching concern, initially
based on slave labour, and set aside 100 acres of his ranch for a town, which
he named for his wife, Martha Wall (Covington). Lots were offered free to
families who would establish homes, build a school, and prohibit the
manufacture and sale of alcoholic beverages. Gathings's
generosity was due in part to his desire to open a retail center for his other
business, a factory that produced saddles, boots, wagons, flour, clothes, and
almost any other item needed by settlers.
A steam mill and gin provided farmers with a further incentive to make Covington
their place of business, and the community became their retail point. Gathings himself became postmaster of the community when
its first post office opened in 1855. To attract more families to Covington, he
and his brother Philip established Gathings College
in the early 1860s. The school operated till 1885, at one time enrolling 200
students. By 1870 Covington had a population of nearly 500.
Gathings College
The town suffered its first setback when the Missouri, Kansas and Texas
Railroad bypassed it. In 1904, however, the tracks of the Trinity and Brazos Valley Railway reached the community. For the next
three decades Covington served area farmers and ranchers as a shipping and
retail center. The Great Depression, however, ended its period of sustained
growth. During the 1930s the Trinity and Brazos no
longer stopped in Covington. In addition, World War II, the growth of Waco and
the Dallas-Fort Worth area, and the construction of state and federal highways
combined to end Covington's growth.
Recent History:
Beginning in 1945 its population began a steady decline, from 450 to 270
by the late 1980s. The community reported only one business in 1988. In 1990
the population was 238, and in 2000 it was 282.
As of the census of 2000, there were 282 people, 111 households, and 79
families residing in the city. The population density was 339.8 people per square
mile (131.2/km²). There were 122 housing units at an average density of 147.0/sq mi (56.8/km²). The racial makeup of the city was 90.78%
White, 3.19% African American, 0.35% Native American, 2.84% from other races,
and 2.84% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 6.38% of
the population.
There were 111 households out of which 31.5% had children under the age of 18
living with them, 55.0% were married couples living together, 9.9% had a female
householder with no husband present, and 28.8% were non-families. 22.5% of all
households were made up of individuals and 9.9% had someone living alone who
was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.54 and the
average family size was 2.99.
In the city the population was spread out with 27.0% under the age of 18, 10.3%
from 18 to 24, 26.2% from 25 to 44, 24.1% from 45 to 64, and 12.4% who were 65
years of age or older. The median age was 35 years. For every 100 females there
were 86.8 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 94.3 males.
The median income for a household in the city was $38,214, and the median
income for a family was $45,179. Males had a median income of $35,972 versus
$23,750 for females. The per capita income for the city was $18,874. About
13.9% of families and 9.6% of the population were below the poverty line,
including 4.4% of those under the age of eighteen and 23.4% of those sixty five
or over.
(Covington, Texas (TX 76636) profile: population, maps,
real estate, averages, homes, statistics, relocation, travel, jobs, hospitals,
schools, crime, moving, houses, news, sex offenders (city-data.com))
Links to other websites:
TSHA | Covington, TX (tshaonline.org)
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