First named French Mills in the 1790's by immigrant settlers who came from lower Canada to work in the Robertson and Buchanan Mills on the Salmon River, the community was renamed Fort Covington in 1817 in honor of Brigadier General Leonard Covington, who died during the American-British War of 1812 after being mortally wounded on November 11, 1813 at the battle of Chrysler's Farm in Williamsburg Ontario, Canada.