Covington is a city in Hill County in northern central Texas. Located at the intersection of FM 67 and State Highway 171, twelve miles north of Hillsboro, it is near the northern boundary of Hill County. It was founded by Colonel James Jackson Gathings, formerly of North Carolina and Mississippi, in the spring of 1852 and named for his wife's family. Gathings secured approximately 10,000 acres of land in what is now Hill County, 100 of which were set aside for the new town of Covington. 158 years later, the population of Covington was 269 at the 2010 census.