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Charles was the third child of Anton Gruner and Caroline Pilz. He was born on1
September 1860 in Branch County, Michigan and died a few miles from his birthplace
on 11 September 1943. He married Ella Dovey, member of a colorful local family on
12 October 1891. They were a friendly and outgoing couple, well liked throughout the
community during their fifty-four years of marriage.
Charles farmed together with his father and two brothers until after his marriage to
Ella, at which time he took over ownership of two farms in Batavia Township and later
added another 80-acre farm on Calkins Road. He was a skilled manager for the most
part, an exception being when he allowed a brother-in-law to talk him into investing in
a Klondike gold mine that didn’t pay off.
He was a progressive farmer, open to new and better ways of doing things. He was
one of the founders of the Branch County Farm Bureau and was one of the first in
the community to have electricity in the home through use of a gasoline- powered
generator. Ella was featured in a 1928 Detroit Free Press layout as a “Master
Homemaker,” pictured using her electric vacuum cleaner, something many farmwomen
of that day considered a “newfangled contraption.” Charles and Ella had three children,
Vera, Gladys and Clare.
(Fourth Generations)
Vera Gruner (1892-1994), a graduate of Michigan State, taught home economics
and became a member of the Home Economics Department at the college before
her marriage to Clarence Oviatt, a successful beet grower in Bay City. They moved
to Washington, DC after he was appointed to a position with the US Department of
Agriculture. After his retirement in 1965, the couple returned to Michigan and made
their home in East Lansing. Their children are Jean (Draper), Gayle (Bauer) and
Vivian (Collier)
Gladys Gruner (1897-1979) graduated from Michigan State University and
continued with postgraduate work at Columbia University in New York. In 1921
she married George Miller, a dairyman and ice cream manufacturer. They were
later divorced, but she continued on as manager of the business, much to the delight
of the youngster who looked forward to the five-gallon containers of the ice cream
she furnished for the annual Gruner reunions. She had no children.
Clare Gruner (1904-1986) became a successful, resourceful and well-liked farmer,
active with the Branch County Farm Bureau and director of the Farm Bureau Oil
Company. He farmed with his father for many years and acquired an addition farm
on Burch Road in Coldwater Township, where he lived after his marriage in 1929
to Wilma Strong, a friendly, outgoing type who loved to entertain in their gracious
home. They had three children, Charles Wilson, Joan Elizabeth and Bruce Clare.
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