John Y. “Bose” Covington at the age when many children today are still in elementary school, is reported to have been thrust into the position of managing not only his family plantation but a mercantile trade when his father unexpectedly died. Covington’s survival of this challenge and his rise to prominence in community building and philanthropy in Monroe, Louisiana, lead squarely through one location — The Silver King Saloon.
Covington was born in 1863 in Red River, Texas, where his father, John A., operated what apparently was a substantial farm. John A. originally was from Alabama and Bose’s mother from Louisiana. With no indication that the family owned slaves, the Covingtons may have been openly or covertly on the Union side during the Civil War. In post-war 1873 the father accepted an appointment from the Grant Administration as postmaster of Forksville, Louisiana, a town a dozen miles from Monroe, and the family moved there. John A. would have obtained this patronage position only if he were believed to be a Republican and a loyal “Union man.” The job administering the U.S. mail apparently allowed the father to buy a small farm and open a store in Forksville, likely adjacent to the post office.
Then the story gets murky. That area of Louisiana was home to numerous Covingtons, several of them named John. The local newspaper obituary for this John Y. says his father died when he was a boy of 14: “Upon which the latter immediately assumed the task of carrying on the burdens of the plantation and the merchantile enterprise.” That dating would put John A.’s death in 1877. A genealogical site, however, puts the father’s death at 1890 when “Bose” (no clue how he got that nickname) would have been considerably older.
Whichever version is closer to the truth, the young Covington in time did dispose of the farm and moved to Monroe with the remnants of his father’s store. My guess is that liquor was an important part of his stock. By 1900 he opened a highly successful saloon and liquor dealership that he called “The Silver King Saloon.” Shown left is a photograph of the two story building at 121 to 129 Grand Street. Below are shots of the busy saloon interior and the liquor sales area where the central figure may be Covington himself.
Covington’s wholesale business required him to receive shipments of whiskey by rail in barrel quantities. These were then decanted into ceramic jugs of gallon and larger sizes to be sold to his wholesale customers in other local saloons or restaurants and hotels. Those containers in turn would be poured into smaller quantities for serving over the bar. Covington featured a variety of ceramic whiskey jugs, from ones crudely marked with an incised name to more sophisticated jugs with elaborate under-glazed labels.
Covington also was “rectifying,” that is blending, bulk whiskeys to achieve particular taste, smoothness, color and other attributes, likely in the saloon basement. These would have been bottled in embossed glass quart and smaller containers with paper labels. “St. Clair Whiskey” appears to have been a proprietary brand, as was “Silver Wedding 1884 Rye.” The bottles would have been sold both at wholesale and retail.
The 1900 U.S. Census found Covington, who apparently never married, living in Monroe as the head of a household that included his 60-year old mother, Mary; his sister Ida; Ida’s daughter, Lucille, and a black servant named Alice. Already people in Monroe were beginning to recognize that the young saloonkeeper was a generous soul but were unaware of the true extent of his charity so secret did he keep it.
During the early 20th Century, as prohibitionary forces banned alcohol sales in localities and even whole states, the liquor trade remained open for interstate commerce. With Louisiana thoroughly “wet,” Monroe became a center for mail order whiskey and beer dealers. Covington was among them, advertising on his whiskeys and shot glasses. Quoting the local newspaper: “He branched out and with commendable business acumen established a mail order liquor business, which by dint of sheer hard work and perseverance he built up into an enterprise of considerable dimensions and laid the foundations for a moderate-sized fortune.”
As above, Covington publicized his ability to provide quality brands through railway express. If you bought four full quarts he would pay express charges. As the reputation of his mail order house grew, he began to attract attention in neighboring Texas that had gone dry in 1918. A Texas customer named Gould Collins drove to the Silver King Saloon, loaded up with liquor, and headed back home. Authorities were watching. Near the Texas border outside Shreveport they arrested Collins. Part of the blame fell on Covington as the seller. When the case reached the Federal Appeals Court, Covington was absolved of any wrongdoing and Collins, not having crossed the Texas line, was acquitted.
With the advent of National Prohibition, Covington closed down his Silver King saloon and liquor sales, devoting himself to looking after his real estate investments that included a number of downtown Monroe buildings, including the Central Savings & Trust Company, where he was an officer. Said his obituary: “He believed in the steady growth of the community, a belief which eventually was realized.”
As he approached 60 years Covington’s health began to falter. According to newspaper accounts, he developed severe intestinal problems. Seeking better medical treatment than Monroe could provide, he traveled to Colorado, California and Texas. When nothing availed, he returned home. Operated on at Monroe’s St. Francis Hospital, “Bose” Covington died an hour later without ever regaining consciousness. His June 19, 1922, death was mourned as “a real loss to the community.”
With Covington’s passing was unlocked the full story of his philanthropy. Albert Horuff, who had been in charge of the former saloonkeeper’s affairs during his illness, told the Monroe News-Star that only recently had he become fully aware of Covington’s assistance to the needy: “His indeed was a charitable nature, contributing not only to organized charity, but reaching to the very heart of want and answering with a ready response the appeals of his fellow-men who needed assistance. Of him might truly be said that his left hand knew not what his right hand performed.”
Covington’s funeral services were held at the Elk’s Hall, conducted by the Rev. A. W. Waddill, pastor of the First Methodist Church of Monroe. Burial was in the Old City Cemetery. The whiskey man’s badly weathered grave marker is shown here. Even Covington’s funeral made front page news. As his steel coffin weighing 800 pounds was being lowered into the ground, a wooden plank used in the process broke. An undertaker’s employee named Lynch was pitched into the pit and pinned under the casket. It took many minutes to raise it off the unconscious man. Rushed to the hospital, Lynch was found not seriously injured.
Note: This post was researched from a number of sources. Among them the most important was the lengthy Covington obituary from the Monroe News-Star of June 20, 1922. All quotes in italics are from that article.
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