William J. Covington physician's account books, 1898-1907

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Summary

Creator:
Covington, William J., 1852-1917
Abstract:
Dr. William J. Covington (1852-1917) was a physician based in Cartersville (Bartow County), Georgia. Collection consists of two account books of 200 pages each, with entries specifying his patients' names, race, dates, types of consultations, fees charged, and payments, which included cash as well as services and goods. Covington visited local white and African American persons. Procedures noted include many obstetrical visits, tooth extractions, wounds, minor operations, and at least one explicitly noted abortion for which he gave chloroform. Medicines are rarely named. Two informal notes from patients and a few other laid-in items are included. Acquired as part of the George Washington Flowers Collection of Southern Americana.
Extent:
0.5 Linear Feet (1 box)
Language:
English
Collection ID:
RL.11910

Background

Scope and content:

Collection consists of two bound account books of 200 pages each, with clearly legible handwritten entries on numbered pages, specifying patients' names; race; dates and types of consultations; fees charged; and payment methods, which included cash as well as services such as pasturing animals, laundry, or cutting wood, and goods such as potatoes, corn, and wood. Includes the physician's own expenses.

Procedures noted include many obstetrical visits (with the sex of babies he delivered denoted by a "B" or "G"), tooth extractions, dressing and stitching wounds, setting broken bones, cauterizing tonsils, lancing abscesses, minor operations, and at least one explicitly noted abortion for which he gave chloroform. Medicines are rarely named.

Covington visited local whites and African Americans, adults as well as children. African American account holders are denoted as "Col," and at least one Guiton family entry seems to be denoted as "red" (?), perhaps designating Native American ancestry. Names of African Americans include: Charles Morris; Ben Dorsey; Steve Davenport; Wes Hendrix; Eliza Kellogg; Dora McKinney; Sam Henderson; Will Johnson; George Lagriere; John Henderson; Jim Ross; Louise Thomas; Harrison Trimble; Harry Carson; John Erwin; Charley Moore; Wiley Weams; Will Carson; Calvin Beaver; Tom Moore; Henry Coleman; Will Mann; Matilda Reed; and Adda (or Addie) McCoy.

The Benevolent Brotherhood Society is listed multiple times as the account holder for visits by Dr. Covington to various named individuals; it was the charitable branch of the African American Mount Zion Lodge #6, and was established in 1898 in Cartersville.

Each volume begins with a tabbed alphabetical index to patient names and the page number on which their accounts are found.

The loose items include a written message asking the doctor to come visit a patient (another is pasted in the volume), some sheets with figures, a pharmacy account record, and a receipt for cash paid.

Biographical / historical:

Dr. William J. Covington, a physician in Cartersville (Bartow County), Georgia, was born in 1852. He studied at the Medical College of Georgia in Augusta and graduated from the University of Georgia Medical Department in 1881. He died in 1917.

Acquisition information:
The William J. Covington physician's account books were acquired as a purchase by the David M. Rubenstein Rare Book Manuscript Library in 2002.
Processing information:

Processed and described by Paula Jeannet, July 2021.

Accession(s) represented in this collection guide: 2002-0296.

Physical facet:
2 bound volumes
Dimensions:
Volumes measure approximately 12 x 7 1/2 inches.
Rules or conventions:
Describing Archives: A Content Standard

Contents

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Restrictions:

Collection is open for research

Terms of access:

The copyright interests in this collection have not been transferred to Duke University. For more information, consult the copyright section of the Regulations and Procedures of the David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library.

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Preferred citation:

[Identification of item or page number], William J. Covington physician's account books, David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Duke University

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