Conrad and Molly Kramer stand in front of the Kramer family home, which recently marked its 100th anniversary.

SAGOLA — Conrad and Molly Kramer recently marked the 100th anniversary of their family home at N9506 Kramer Road in Sagola.

Conrad’s grandfather, Albert, originally from Fond du Lac, Wis., married a Marinette, Wis., woman and lived there for several years before coming in 1904 to work as a sawyer at the Sagola mill. The farm house went up in 1918 on what used to be the main route between Iron Mountain and Sagola, before U.S. 2 was created, Conrad said.

Albert and his wife, Adice, had 14 children, two dying in infancy but several others who lived into their 90s, Conrad said.

His parents, Ralph and Norway native Margaret Kramer, bought the home in 1927 when Adice decided to move back to Marinette after Albert Kramer’s death in 1921. Conrad was born in 1932 in the house, along with two of his five siblings.

He and Molly, who both attended Channing High School and married in 1955, moved into the house in 1959, putting on an addition that served as an apartment for his parents.

“It was a great place to raise children,” Molly said. Originally a dairy farm, Conrad switched to beef cattle, as it was less labor-intensive.

While the house has replaced siding and some remodeling over the decades, the frame — made of hemlock — has remained sound. The house also has white and red pine Conrad salvaged from Groveland Mine, where he worked for 27 years until it closed in 1983, then he joined Minerick Logging for 20 years.

After retiring, he made furniture from local cedar and hardwoods in his Old Goat Woodshop. Molly has converted part of the apartment addition into a sewing room, primarily for quilting, saying, “I’ve made a lot of baby quilts.”

Now 86, Conrad said he will live on the property until his death, when “I think they’ll just dig a hole in the basement and put me down there.”

The farm now has 120 acres and six houses, one with Conrad and Molly’s son, Kevin; a daughter, Regina, has purchased the original 40-acre property and plans to retire there, Conrad said.