Henry Lily Covington and his brothers Charles,Jeff,DeCarr and Bob owned a turpentine business in Georgia beginning in the 1880's. Their activities began in NC and SC and later extended from Savannah to Jacksonville to Pensacola, Florida. Consolidated Naval Stores, a succesor company to Gulf Naval Stores was formed in 1902.At one time he was one of the wealthiest men in Florida. His family lost a fortune after the civil war and the Covington brothers helped regain their fortune with their ingenuity. The Covington family was involved in the grocery distribution business, the turpentine business, and banking business. Henry and his brother Charles began their business careers in 1873 by clerking in the mercantile establishment of J.W. Holliday. One year later Charles and Henry were taken into partnership with J.W. Holliday. It existed for 11 years. Beginning with $75 capitol by 1890 in Florence,SC they had an invested capitol of $175.000 with ten turpentine distilleries in which they employed 400 to 600. Also in 1890 they had branched out to operate a very large livestock business in Florence amounting to $50,000 annually. In 1894 Charles and Henry Organized the Gulf Naval Stores Company. The company was in the naval stores commissions and wholesale grocery business. In 1903 the Consolidated Naval Stores was organized and Henry was the Vice President. He also was elected by the board of directors as president of the American National Bank of Pensacola, Florida. I could go on and on. Henry and his family were an exceptional family and were some of the greatest innovators in the South East after the Civil War. All of the information about Henry and his brothers came from the book "Terrell and Eranda Covington Genealogy" by William Oates Covington. William got the information from: Cyclopedia of Eminent and Representative Men of the Carolinas in the Nineteenth Century.Copyright 1892.
I am so proud to be part of this remarkable family. Linda Wilson Cutlip