Anna was born in Reichenberg, Bohemia (now Liberec, Czech Republic) on 17 March 1819, the fourth child of Franz von Gruner and Katharina Bergmann. She came to America in 1856 and made her home in Branch County, Michigan, where she died in 1891.

She was a favorite of her brother Anton, who was nine years her senior, perhaps because she was the first girl in the family. As she grew up, she looked forward to the court balls that she attended with Anton as her escort. He would tease her and not let her know until the last minute when the next one would be. She had her own means of finding out, through, and would have her gown and slippers ready when he finally told her.

Anna was well educated, an avid reader, shrewd in business and strong willed. When she was twenty, she married Philipp Adolf (name often anglicized to “Philip Adolph”), a man considered a desirable catch at that time. In family history he became controversial, part charmer and part rogue. Not much is known of his military career, but at one point he ran afoul of the law and it required considerable family money and pressure to keep him out of prison. He died of tuberculosis in 1854, at the age of forty. By that time, Anna had five living children and had contracted tuberculosis herself. Her brothers persuaded her to go to America as soon as she was well enough.

The original Homestead was purchased for one thousand dollars by Wenzel Gruner from Henry Vanhynning & Wife. It was recorded in the Branch County land records, Vol. 2, page 36, dated April 4, 1855, and is described as follows:

“Eighty acres of land of uniform width of the South end of the East half of the South East quarter of Section Thirty-one and off the South end of the South West fractional quarter of Section thirty-two being in the township of Girard or in township five South of range six West in the county of Branch and state of Michigan.”

The same eighty acres was transferred from Wenzel Gruner to Anna Adolph for one thousand dollars on February 5, 1857 and recorded in Liber 5, page 62 in the Branch County land records. On April 18, 1869 Anna transferred 20 acres of land to her son Philip for fifty dollars a portion of her land. Philip had married Clara Jane Fox the year before and it is presumed he wanted to build his own home. The lot is described as follows:

“The north half of the south east quarter of the south east quarter of section thirty-one* in township five south of range six west twenty (20) acres being bounded on the north by the south line of land owned by Vanhynning, on the east by the lake on south by land owned by Anna Adolph and on the west by the road running north and south.”

[*Ed. note: An error in land description. The 20 acres described is in section 32, not 31.]

There may have been some question about ownership of the rest of the farm since Philip was an adult and had managed the farm for his mother for many years. It would seem a quit claim deed from Philip to Anna was drawn up at the same time as the 20-acre transfer in order to protect Anna. In case anything would happen to Philip, it could have been possible that Philip’s wife could claim the entire farm. The land described in the quit claim is the same land transferred to Anna from her brother Wenzel. The quit claim deed reads as follows:

“Eighty acres of land of the south end of the east half of the south east quarter of section thirty-one and the south end of the south west fractional quarters of section thirty-two in township five south of range six west except twenty acres deeded to me this day from Anna Adolph, also the west half of the south west quarter of section seven & township number five south of range six west in Branch County Michigan.”

You will find a photo of Anna's original home in the “Gruner Homes” section of this site. Click here for Anna's Home

We now have Anna’s Sugar Shack story in our “Family Treasures” section. You may find it interesting to read and to see the photo of the building as it looked then and of the land as it looks today.