Newton County GaArchives News.....A BIT OF SCHOOL HISTORY February 3 1899
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Phyllis Thompson http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00011.html#0002524 December 1, 2004, 8:20 am

The Georgia Enterprise
Covington’s Schools Have Been Noted For Many Years and Its Scholars Fill 
Positions Everywhere
     Ten years back from the present issue of the GEORGIA ENTERPRISE in 
February, 1889, our City Public Schools were organized. Since their inception 
to the present their growth has been  steady and now, probably, no city in the 
State the size of Covington, can claim a better public school system than 
Covington. For a half century Covington has been known and noted for her 
schools, and graduates from them are, perhaps, found in most of the States of 
The Union.
     In 1851, about fifteen years after Emory College was founded at Oxford, 
the citizens of Covington erected on the present site of our public school 
building, the building which we all know as the old “Masonic College.” This was 
then known as the Covington Female Seminary. On the 3rd day of December, 1851, 
the legislature of the State chartered the Southern Female College, the 
trustees of the same being citizens of Covington Female Seminary transferred 
their school building and property to the trustees of Southern Female College.
     The first president of the Seminary and College was M. C. Fulton, whom 
some of our oldest citizens still recollect. His administration was one of 
great success, and the college became popular and grew rapidly.
     On the 24th day of June, 1853, the trustees of the Southern Female College 
conveyed to the Grand Lodge of the State of Georgia their school and school 
property. The college then became known as the Southern Masonic Female College. 
Hundreds of the young women of Georgia and the other Southern States were 
graduated from this institution during the twenty-eight years of its existence. 
Some of the most noted men in Georgia were it presidents: Dr. A. A. Means, Dr. 
G. J. Orr, Dr. J. L. Jones, Rev. Creed Fulton and Dr. J. N. Bradshaw, all 
brought honor and credit to the college as presiding officers.
     On the 25th day of November, 1881, the trustees of the Southern Masonic 
Female College gave back to the trustees of the Southern Female College the 
property, and on the 20th day of December of the same year, they in turn 
conveyed it to the North Georgia Conference, and the school became known as the 
Georgia Methodist Female College.
     The first president of the Methodist College was Rev. W. B. Bonnell, now 
one of the faculty of Wesleyan Female College. Prof. Homer Wright, now 
superintendent of the public schools of Dawson, Ga., was the next president, 
and Rev. J. T. McLaughlin now of Atlanta, was the last.
     On the 14th day of July, 1894, the North Georgia Conference returned the 
property to the trustees of the Southern Female College and on the same day 
they transferred it to the city of  Covington. As the public schools are here 
to stay, the property will perhaps never change hands again.
     But the public schools were not organized in 1894. In 1888 a charter was 
granted by the legislature and in February 1889 the system was inaugurated with 
Rev. J. T. McLaughlin as first superintendent. At the close of the spring term 
1889, he resigned his position, Prof. W. Frank Smith succeeded him. Prof. Smith
was superintendent for two years, and in the fall of 1891 was succeeded by 
Prof. A. W. Lynch. In the summer of 1892 Prof W. C. Wright was chosen 
superintendent, which position he still holds.
     In 1895 the old Masonic College building was torn down, and by the summer 
of 1896 the new public school building had risen from the ashes of the old. In 
design and equipment and with its heating and ventilating system, the building 
will compare with the best.
     Teachers and pupils work in accord with their surroundings and the dollars 
and cents turned into the school are shaping mind and character.
     The yearly enrollment is nearly two hundred and fifty; and these, day by 
day, by line upon line and precept upon precept, are being trained and fitted 
for life. Since the inauguration of the public school system there have been 
fifty one graduates, a list of whom we give below:

1889
IRENE McLAUGHLIN

1890
CLIFF LESTER
LEILA CAMP
MAGGIE MOSS
JANIE PERRY
BESSIE SMITH
CLARA PETTY

1892
LAUNA CAMP
KATHLEEN MIDDLEBROOK
LIZZIE KELLY
BESSIE KELLY
JACKIE STEPHENSON
PRUE PAMPLIN
OLIVE SWANN

1893
PEARL BELCHER
EMMA JARMAN
LILLIE KELLY
SALLIE MAE SOCKWELL

1894
MAMIE EDWARDS
VERNIE WOODRUFF
CLAUDE DeVAUGHN
FLORA CARR
ANNIE GRACE MIXON
ANNIE HEARD
AVA BOMAR
LIZZIE COOK
DAISY LEE

1895
GRACE LEE
BROWNIE ANDERSON
CLAUDE LEE
MINNIE THOMPSON
MARY STEPHENSON
MATTIE ELLINGTON

1897
LULA DUNLAP
WILLIE HARVEY
TRUDIE PERRY
CASSIE EVANS
MARY CLARK
DOVIE STEPHENSON
EVA LOYD

1898
ETHEL SHEPHERD
ETHEL BELCHER
MILDRED KELLY
JULIA ALLEN
ROSA CANNON
PAULINE HYER


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