Collections : [Archives of Michigan]

This series documents the history of Covert and Van Buren County, Michigan and the activities of the Sarno – Hendricks family. Most of the photographs are not dated. These depict Covert student groups and clearly document the racially integrated makeup of the classrooms. Box 17 includes panoramic and rolled photographs of Covert school students for the years 1927-1935. Other photographs include portraits of unidentified individuals and depictions of Covert houses and Bale’s peach orchard. Photographs depicting Hendricks family members and the Van Buren County Historical Society Museum are filed within this series.

Most postcards depict scenes of Covert and other Southwest Michigan towns. There are street scenes, a photo of a Benton Harbor farmer’s market and images of individual buildings, including post offices, schools, hospitals, banks and stores.

Pearl Sarno served on the Covert Bicentennial Committee and her collection reflects 1976 Bicentennial events: outdoor movies, parades, Chautauquas, exhibits and school essay contests, among others. A related folder documents the Covert Library Historical marker, which was placed by the Michigan History Division (Michigan Department of State) in 1976.

Sarno was also active in the Van Buren County Historical Society. Historical Society materials (1965-1992) include a copy its constitution, meeting minutes, correspondence, membership lists, grant applications, newspaper clippings and news bulletins. The items provide information on local history and document Society activities: elections, building preservation and restoration projects, museum operations and events such as picnics and yard sales. The photographs depict Society buildings and exhibits.

The “Hendricks Family” file (1904-1905) contains family documents of Pearl Hendricks Sarno. These include postcards and other correspondence, a motor vehicle certificate, business cards, cradle roll certificates and floor plans for an unidentified building that appears to be a house or some other form of residence. Some photographs of individuals are not identified. The correspondence covers several topics, including deaths, family reunions and vacations.

The collection contains a couple unpublished Covert histories. An unknown author wrote one of these at an undetermined date. However, Pearl Sarno’s introduction to A Look at Covert’s Heritage (Pearl Sarno, Editor. Covert, Michigan: Covert Bicentennial Committee, 1976) references a 1952 unpublished history by Covert resident John R. Spelman. Spelman’s history would seem to be the unidentified one. The work discusses Covert businesses, Native Americans, railroads, early roads and some early residents. The second unpublished history is a copy of Anna-Lisa Cox’s 2002 thesis, submitted to the Graduate College of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Cox focuses on Covert’s history of racial integration. This research formed the basis of her 2006 book, A Stronger Kinship (New York: Little, Brown and Company).

The documentation includes seven highway maps and four plats. One of the highway maps is hand drawn on the back of a railroad bond and labeled “Highway Map of Deerfield Township,” (circa 1870s?). It provides some land ownership information. Three other highway maps depict a grid of the township. They are undated and also provide some land ownership information. Lastly, the series includes three highway maps dating from the last half the Twentieth Century, a photocopy of a land ownership plat (1873), a 1963 land ownership plat and two undated hand-drawn plats that show some land owner names, but are not complete.

This series documents the history of one of Covert’s earliest churches. The Covert Congregational Church officially organized in 1870. The Sunday school began two years earlier, in 1868. Church services were initially held in a barn and then moved to Pachard’s Hall in 1873. The Church continued meeting at the hall until the Congregational Church dedication in 1879.

Congregational Church materials include meeting minutes, financial information, Sunday school reports, membership statistics, and correspondence, copies of Church constitutions and amendments and newspaper clippings. The records also document baptisms, marriages and membership information. Names of pastors and Church officers have also been recorded. Charity work and donations and anniversaries (including anniversaries of the Sunday School, Church and Church building) are reflected within the records as well.

Much of this information is recorded in volumes labeled “record books.” Record keeping practices differed at various times, however. The reports from the Church treasurer, cradle rolls and Sunday school records are among the series that were sometimes included in record books and other times documented separately.

The Church record includes documentation (Subseries 2.2) of the “the Ladies Aid and Benevolent Society of Covert” (1884-1894) and its successor group, the Covert Congregational Church Women’s Club, which began in 1927. The Ladies Aid and Benevolent Society documentation includes meeting minutes, financial information and membership lists. The Society raised money for the Church and for Missionary Societies and embarked on charity work. It also made quilts and sponsored events such as picnics and temperance lectures.

The constitution of the Covert Congregational Church Women’s Club states that its object was “to promote the welfare of the church and community.” Minutes of the first meeting note that the “Ladies Aid Society” had agreed to disband. The minutes state that the new club was formed “to interest more people, the younger ones especially, and to accomplish more things by co-ordination.” Women’s Club materials (1927-2000) include meeting minutes, financial records, membership lists and annual reports. Many of these items appear in “record books,” and materials are arranged chronologically. The records document fundraising and disbursement of funds. Fundraising ventures included bake sales, bazaars, banquets and socials. Money typically went toward missionary work, charity, church expenses and college endowment funds. Club activities included social gatherings to honor specific groups of people, such as veterans and Sunday school teachers. A photograph album spans 1980-1994, with a few items from 1963