On December 18, 1821, the Alabama General Assembly appointed Covington County commissioners William Carter Jr., James R. Mobley, Aaron Lockhart, Henry Jones, and Abel Polk to choose a suitable county seat and oversee the construction of the public buildings needed for county use. Originally known as Covington Court House, the county seat was named Montezuma by 1824 and stood on the banks of the Conecuh River near this site. Repeated flooding led to the removal of the seat of justice to present-day Andalusia in 1844, and Montezuma was eventually abandoned.