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Covington, county’s early agricultural thrust gave way to new age boom

By TAYLOR BECK

news@covnews.com

In a large contrast to the industrial hustle and bustle of new technological companies arriving into Covington today, Covington and Newton County was strictly agricultural in its adolescent years, and it wasn’t until the the early 1900s that things began to change.

The county’s earliest settlers, pouring in from east Georgia, the Carolinas, Virginia and others, made the most of what was then considered a vast woodland. Clearing of the land for cultivation released thousands of acres of deep fertile top soil that proved quite productive.

Crops grown in the county through the years consisted of barley, corn, cowpeas, grain sorghum, hay, oats, peaches, pecans, peanuts, rye, soybeans, sweet potatoes, truck crops, watermelons and wheat.

Newton farmers were also efficient producers in beef cattle, broilers, dairying, eggs, sheep, swine, and turkeys during the span of time for each commodity.

Grain crops, such as corn and wheat, grown during the early pioneer days of Newton County were important to agricultural development. These were used for corn meal and flour by the homemaker. It was also used for feed for work animals, poultry and hogs. The sawmill and pulpwood industry contributed to the growing economy of Newton County, too.

However, like a lot of Georgia counties, “Cotton was King, ” and the advancement of the cotton mill brought the first sign of real success to Covington.

Agriculture of the early days was carried out by the use of domestic animals (horse, mules, oxen) and primitive hand tools. Cotton farms were worked primarily with plantation slave labor prior to the Civil War. Mainly sharecroppers and day labor were used after that time.

The community grew substantial as a business and agricultural center through the years and Covington was quickly accepted as the cotton market for regional farmers.

But into the 1920s, cotton production began to decline. There were a number of reasons for the decline, including the invasion of the boll weevil; the stock market crash in 1929; and over production and low prices of the 1930s, which gave rise to cotton acreage controls. Cooton production had reached an all-time high in 1920 with more than 60,000 acres in the county, but it has since, perpetually declined, reaching near zero in 1987.

As result of the boll weevil, among the other factors, many residents lost everything. They gave up farming to pursue other work at textile mills and other industries across the region. Many even migrated north, specifically to Detroit, Michigan, to find work in the fast-rising automobile industry.

But not everyone quit farming. Those who were able to survive the boll weevil invasion eventually learned the importance of diversification.

Peaches began being produced on a large scale during the 1920s, 1930s and 1940s. One orchard was successful in the 1950s and 1960s. Peach packaging facilities in Mansfield sent thousands of bushels of the fruit north via the railroads.

A few farmers began to experiment with beef cattle in the 1920s and 1930s. Old cultivated fields

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were converted to pasture. By the early 1950s, there were 50-60 dairies in Newton County. Chicken houses were also constructed as production of the birds began to spread from Gainesville.

By the 1970s, tenant farmers virtually disappeared from the city and county.

Diversification of agriculture resulted in many farmers either reducing their cotton acreage or dropping cotton altogether. Conversion of cropland to pine plantations, also, caused the displacement of tenants. And the mechanization of agriculture resulted in the need for fewer laborers. In addition, former tenant farmers were able to find work in newly developed industrial activities in the Newton County area.

By 1980, the few full-time agricultural laborers in Newton County were generally salaried, paid Social Security and often received some typed of job benefits such as life and/or accident insurance.

Today, there are few farms in Newton County and much less land dedicated to farming.

Longtime local attorney Phil Johnson briefly talked about the change during a May 2021 interview with The Covington News.

“When I was a young man, Newton County had 26 dairy farms and had about 30,000 people,” Johnson said. “Now, we have no dairy farms — nobody’s milking — and about 115,000 people in Newton County.”

In the late 1990s and early 2000s, Newton County started to see rapid growth and increasing land values, which led many generational farmers to repurposing their land for housing.

As an example, in a September 2020 interview with The Covington News, Newton County Chamber of Commerce President Debbie Harper said her father, Doug Doster, who once owned the Food Pride grocery store (formerly known as Red and White), did just that and “started building houses when Covington and Newton County began to boom.”

Now, Covington and Newton County has become home to multiple companies looking to take advantage of the city’s growing industry-friendliness. Just in 2022, Covington has welcomed the addition of Absolics’ new $600 million manufacturing facility that will become the first place in the world to mass produce a glass substrate expected to revolutionize the computer technology industry in coming years.

Additionally, Archer Aviation Inc., a Silicon Valley-based aerospace company is planning to begin construction on a 500,000 square-foot complex near Covington Municipal Airport — an addition that promises to create 1,000 jobs for the area. Back in January, the state budgeted $2 million from the Georgia Emergency Education Relief Fund (GEER II) to build a CDL driving range and facilities in Newton County for transportation training. Construction for that project is set to begin in Spring 2023.

It all means that industry evolution is rapidly taking place in Covington. But it stands on the shoulders of a robust agricultural foundation that promoted hard work and the desire to see a city and county grow.

The Historical Society of Newton County and current publisher and editor Gabriel Stovall contributed to this article.