Charles H. Covert was born on July 12, 1850, in Montgomery Township, New Jersey, to Minna and Catherine Covert. His father was a shoemaker who owned $1,000 of real estate by 1850. He grew up in Montgomery, New Jersey, and by 1870, he was working as a farm laborer. He married Mary Willard around 1872, and they had at least three children: Clara, born around 1876; Katie, born around 1879; and William, born around 1883. They lived in Cecil, Pennsylvania, until the 1890s, when they moved to Trenton, New Jersey. He died on March 14, 1901.