Pine Run was the settlement the railroad left behind

Vienna Township’s early center was not the place now called Clio. Charles McLean settled along the old Saginaw Road in 1833 and opened his house to travelers. Sylvester Vibbard joined him that year, and more settlers followed. By 1836, the small village had a post office and the name Vienna.

The names split in 1837. The state created Vienna Township and named it for the established village. At the first township election, residents changed the village’s name to Pine Run, after the nearby stream. The community grew to include a post office, blacksmith shop, stores, two saloons, two hotels, and a school. Russell Hurd added a grist mill in 1855.

Then the transportation map changed. In 1861, a proposal would have carried the Flint and Pere Marquette railroad through Pine Run. The proposal did not go forward. The line was built through the smaller settlement of Varney to the north instead. Varney gained the station, grew quickly, and soon took the name Clio. Pine Run’s growth slowed as activity shifted toward the tracks.

Pine Run did not disappear completely. A 1907 Genesee County plat still labels the community at Saginaw and Vienna roads. The township’s current master plan also uses the name for Pine Run, one of its three main drainageways, and for the east-west Pine Run Pathway. The old village lost the growth contest, but its name stayed on the landscape.