History

George W. Covington

congressman, canal advocate

Maryland congressman from the Eastern Shore whose advocacy of the Chincoteague-to-Delaware inland waterway gave the project its popular name. The Smyrna Times of April 21, 1886 described the scheme as "popularly known as 'The Covington Canal' — so called, from its projector and earnest advocate in Congress" — reporting a $25,000 appropriation for it in that year's House rivers-and-harbors bill. The route he pushed, running behind the barrier beach past Ocean City from Synepuxent Bay to Rehoboth, is the line of the modern Intracoastal Waterway.

In the record (2)

  1. 1890 · 1890-07-17

    The Governor of Maryland and a sitting U.S. Senator both fall ill at the Atlantic Hotel, and the Governor is carried off the beach by steamer.

    'Gov. E. E. Jackson and family, Judge C. F. Holland and State Senator F. S. Toadvin are at the Atlantic Hotel, Ocean City, Md.,' the Evening Capital reported on July 15, 1890 — the Governor of Maryland, the judge who had just bought the hotel at auction, and the Wicomico senator whose name would go before the district convention two months later, all under one roof. It did not go well. On July 18 the paper reported that Jackson had been taken 'to Salisbury yesterday on the steamer McLane. His condition began to improve almost as soon as he started on the water. When the steamer arrived at Salisbury the Governor was driven at once to his home, whither Mrs. Jackson was summoned by telegraph from Ocean City.' A week later: 'Gov. Jackson, who has been confined to his room in the Atlantic Hotel, Ocean City, is much better... Governor Jackson and Senator Wilson are reported to be somewhat unwell at Ocean City, though both are improving.' The Delaware Gazette's Ocean City letter of July 31 found the sick list a roll-call of the Eastern Shore bench and bar: Judge L. T. Irving of Princess Anne, Judge Holland of Salisbury, Judge Goldsborough of Cambridge, Col. Thomas Hughlett of Talbot, L. E. P. Dennis, collector of customs at Crisfield, and George W. Covington, all 'being greatly helped by the salt air.' Senator Ephraim K. Wilson II, of Snow Hill, did not recover for long; he died in office on February 24, 1891.

    In 1890 the salt air was still sold as medicine — and the Governor of Maryland was the patient.

    Atlantic HotelElihu Emory JacksonEphraim King Wilson IIJudge Charles F. Holland

    Source · checked 2026-08-06

  2. 1891 · 1891-07-27

    Gen. "Baldy" Smith comes to Snow Hill about dredging the bay above Ocean City — the inland-waterway thread starts eighteen months before 1892's survey.

    'General "Baldy" Smith [was in Snow] Hill last week, for the purpose of consulting Hon. George W. Covington in regard to the dredging of Massey's Shoals, just above Ocean City, in order to allow steam barges to enter the "Covington Canal,"' a Snow Hill correspondent reported on July 27, 1891. If the work were done, 'a gentleman [would] place a number of barges in commission, and the benefits derived by residents along our bay will be very great. Mr. Covington gave General Smith assurances of his hearty co-operation in the matter, and will at once take such steps as he may think necessary to have the work done at an early date.' Gen. William Farrar Smith of the U.S. engineers is the same officer who in December 1892 would be laying out a channel from Rehoboth to Ocean City for the Delaware and Chesapeake inland waterway. The campaign has dated that federal interest to 1892; it begins at Snow Hill in the summer of 1891, and it begins with the bay behind the town, not the ocean in front of it.

    Source · checked 2026-08-11