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Sheriff, public safety groups have always answered the call
By TAYLOR BECK
tbeck@covnews.com
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Since Newton County was formed, there has always been a sheriff to serve and protect the community as its chief law enforcement officer.
The first sheriff, Lemuel Wynne, was appointed to the office Jan. 25, 1822, and he took the oath of office on March 15, 1822.
Including Wynne, there have been 29 different sheriffs for Newton County. • Lemuel Wynne – 1822-1824; 1826-1830 • David Morrow – 1824-1826 • Joseph Waters — 1830-1832 • Alfred Livingston — 18321834; 1836-1838 • John Smith — 1834-1836 • Soprey Anderson — 18261830; 1838-1840 • Thomas Nelms — 1840-1842; 1858-1860 • Lewis Zachary — 1842-1844; 1846-1848; 1850-1852; 1856-1858 • Francis W. McCurdy — 18401842; 1858-1860 • Newton Anderson — 18481850; 1852-1854; 1860-1862; 1864-1866; 1873-1875; 1877-1886 • David White — 1854-1856 • T.C. Posey — 1862-1864 • A.H. Zachry — 1866-1868 • George Power — 1868-1871 • Pleasant Banks — 1871-1873 • Stephen Hight — 1875-1877 • Henry Anderson — 18861893; 1894-1902 • L.O. Wright — 1893-1899 • S.M. Hay — 1902-1920 • B.L. Johnson — 1920-1937 • W.G. Benton — 1937-1949 • C.L. Butler — 1949 • Thomas M. Bates — 19491952 • John L. Berry — 1952-1964 • Henry Odum Jr. — 1964-1976 • Liffton Luke — 1976
• Gerald D. Malcom — 19761996 • Joe Nichols — 1996-2008 • Ezell Brown — 2008-present
Ezell Brown, who was in his fourth term at the time of this publication, made history when elected Nov. 4, 2008, as the first Black man to be sheriff of Newton County.
In 2020, Brown described the role of sheriff as more than “playing cops and robbers.”
“I look at it as being a steward of the community,” he told The Covington News, saying many days he was required to be a counselor or minister, while on other days he would be asked to help someone cover rent or fill a gas tank.
Newton County Sheriff’s Office
The first jail in Newton County was actually at the Brick Store in the eastern part of the county. It served as a jail in the event someone was found guilty and sentenced. Without bars on the doors or windows, a court officer was appointed to sit by the stove fire and guard the prisioner at night.
The first jail in Covington burned while still under construction, but soon after, another jail was built just off the Square behind the Historic Courthouse. It was known as a calaboose and was similar to the one room calaboose that still stands in Porterdale. The jail was used for many years until deemed unfit to house inmates at the turn of the century. In 1901, the construction of a new jail began at the corner of Stallings and Hunter streets. After its completion, the building was considered state of the art. It could hold up to 40 inmates. It cost $10,000 to build.
Samuel Hay was the first sheriff to occupy the new facility. Then, the sheriff lived on site, and in the summer would maintain a vegetable garden to provide meals for inmates.
Today, the Newton County Sheriff’s Office and Detention Center, built in 2004, is located at 15151 Alcovy Rd. in Covington. In 2020, officials broke ground on a $2.9 million expansion that encompassed 145,000 square feet, including detention, and added 7,000 square feet of administrative space and 3,000 square feet of training space.
In 1945, Sheriff W.G. Benton examines a heavy bloodstained stick believed to be a murder weapon in an Almon community home. Benton was Newton County’s sheriff from 1937-1949.
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Newton County Fire Service
Newton County’s Fire Service was first established in the 1960s, largely due to the need of area farmers.
Based on a book written by Tommy Lee, who was one of the county’s founding volunteer firefighters, the fire service first developed as a volunteer system to meet area farmers’ need to protect their crops and homes.
The county didn’t hire its first career firefighter until 1971. The career service remained small for more than a decade.
Volunteer firefighter Ron Savage told The Covington News in 2014 that the volunteers’ heyday was in the 1980s and 1990s when those departments would have 20-plus volunteers and had to improve their coordination and communication with each other.
Newton County didn’t build its first career fire station until 1995. Over the years, more career stations were built and staffed, and, as has happened all over the U.S., volunteers in Newton County have become virtually non-existent.
Today, the county fire service consists of about 138 career and part-time firefighters that work to protect the 279 square-miles of Newton County. At the time of this publication, there were nine fire stations in use across the county, including one of Georgia’s first fire stations that opened in 2021 with a decontamination area designed to lower firefighters’ cancer risk.
Newton County 911
When there’s an emergency, people are taught to immediately call 911.
Today, if residents of Newton County are in a dire situation, they can dial the three-digit number and, without fail, a local dispatcher will answer the call and do his or her best to meet the need.
But 911 hasn’t always been around.
In Newton County, the first 911 call was made Aug. 28, 1989, but before that day, residents had to call their respective police or fire departments any time they needed immediate assistance.
Since the center was established more than three decades ago, Covington-Newton County 911 has served as the sole answering point for the county, dispatching calls for agencies such as the Newton County Sheriff’s Office, Covington Police Department, Covington Marshal’s Office, Newton County Animal Control, Oxford Police, Porterdale Police, Covington Fire, Newton County Fire and Piedmont/Newton EMS. The center also works closely with the Georgia State Patrol, Georgia Bureau of Investigations and the Newton County District Attorney’s Office.
Newton County Sheriff’s Office contributed to this article.
