Elizabeth Covington Biography

Elizabeth was born in Liberty, Amite County, MS March 16, 1862. While she was attending the Amite County Female Institute (her Uncle Shirk's Institution) near Osyka, MS, she went to visit her sister Mattie (Tate) at Simmonsville and met William Eli Simmons. After a courtship William and Elizabeth were married much against the wishes of William's mother. William and his brother had been helping his mother run the large plantation. He had been courting Mollie Ellzey a local girl whom his mother wanted him to marry. When he met Elizabeth he fell in love with her immediately and Mollie had no chance after that. William's mother thought Elizabeth was "too city bred" to make him a good wife. They were married however on April 7, 1881 in Osyka Pike Cnty, MS at the Shirk home. Preacher Shirk married them.

Truly Elizabeth did have a hard time trying to measure up to what William's mother expected of her. They spent most of the first year of their marriage in the home with William's mother. Elizabeth had never learned to sew or cook or supervise the servants as was demanded of a woman on the plantations at that time. Williams mother was a very efficient, stern woman and frightened Elizabeth with her efficiency. However Elizabeth would lock herself in her room as she struggled to learn how to sew. She feared her mother-in-law's criticism should she ruin precious goods or make a failure of the garment she was trying to make.

Elizabeth was no doubt happy when her husband opened a store in Magnolia, MS and they moved there to live just before her first child, Farrar, was born. They didn't live there long however when they bought a home near the old Simmons Home at Simmonsville, MS. They soon built a new home on land purchased from the Simmons Estate where they were to live the rest of their lives.

While married, Elizabeth and William Eli would travel to New Orleans to buy for the store and to do early family Christmas shopping. They would go by buggy and horse to Osyka (about 10 miles) and take a train to New Orleans. Their favorite eating places in "the city", were Kolb's Restaurant and old Faubacker's Restaurant. They always stopped at the Pennsylvania Hotel, one of the principal hotels of that day. William's home and land was sold when his estate was settled after his death.