Education was a high priority when Anton and Wenzel and Anton Gruner settled in Branch County, Michigan in 1854-55. As their families grew, and other families moved into the area, it was time to build a school on land donated by them. It was thought there may have been a school on the northeast corner of what is now Hodunk Road and Miller Lake Road where the children born before 1876 would have gone. In 1875 this brick one-room building was built on the southeast corner and named in honor of the Nation’s Centennial.

Four generations of Gruner descendants attended this school before it was closed in 1965. All rural schools were consolidated by bussing the students into town during the 1960s.

Students of Centennial School in 1907



There are 18 students shown in the picture, including four Gruners. They were Glen, Caroline, Elsie and Mable plus Virgil Sherburne, who later married into the Gruner family.
Top row: 2nd from right: Glen Gruner.
Middle row: 1st on left, Caroline Gruner; 3rd from left, Virgil Sherburne
4th from left, Elsie Gruner.
Front row: 1st on left, Mable Gruner.

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