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Cofounder of Wauconda Orchards dies at 98

Life story

Margaret Breeden ~ 1916-2015

By Eileen O. Daday

Daily Herald correspondent

One of the brains behind the Wauconda Orchards, which drew up to 150,000 people a year during the heyday of its 50-year run, has died.

Margaret Breeden ran the financial end of the farm operation, while her husband, Richard, developed the orchard into a destination for thousands of city and suburban residents alike.

She passed away on Sunday, just four months shy of the couple's 75th wedding anniversary. She was 98.

"She was very supportive of the orchard, all the way through," Richard Breeden said.

While Richard came up with the ideas for the business, it was Margaret who oversaw the books and handled the financial transactions, including the W-2 forms for the farm's more than 100 employees.

The couple met in Milwaukee and ultimately raised their five children in Glenview, where they first ran their own business managing national trade associations.

On a whim, Richard Breeden purchased 75 acres in rural Wauconda for $100 an acre in 1951, fulfilling his dream of owning a farm.

His wife liked to tell the story of the day, not long after the purchase, her husband left her with a parting instruction on his way out the door.

"By the way," he said, "be watching for a truck that will be arriving with a thousand apple trees."

Luckily, she would add, they came as seedlings in small, long boxes. But that was the beginning of their successful orchard, which would grow to include 10,000 trees and 250 acres.

Richard Breeden had earned a degree in parks and recreation at Northwestern University, and he drew on that background in developing the farm. His vision was to make it a recreational farm that would draw people from the city.

"He was one of the first to develop the concept of entertainment farming," said his oldest daughter, Nancy Wentzel, who later managed the farm with her brother, Richard. "They added a petting zoo, hay rides and a corn maze."

Her mother, she added, wanted inner-city children to have a chance to experience a day on the farm. She helped develop the learning center housed in the barn, where children were taught about the "birth of an apple" and pollinating trees.

The Breedens would also add a country store and restaurant, as well as a catalog business, before expanding the farm to include raspberries, pumpkins and strawberries. A hot-air balloon shaped as a red apple and suspended 75 feet above ground was their iconic symbol.

"During our busiest seasons, when the red and golden delicious were ripe, we'd draw nearly 10,000 people a weekend, with a two-mile backup of cars in line to get in," Richard Breeden recalled.

"That was fun. Of course, we had no idea our vision would be that successful," he added.

The couple sold the farm to developers in 2001, but the concept they developed together continues. Their grandson, Steve Black, runs a similar operation, Center Grove Orchards, in Cambridge, Iowa.

Besides her husband and daughter, Breeden is survived by her children, Patricia Black of Ankeny, Iowa, Susan Ellefson of Naples, Florida, Wendy Mello of Modesto, California, and Richard Breeden III of Wauconda, as well as many grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

Visitation will take place at noon before a 1 p.m. memorial service on Thursday, at First Presbyterian Church of Arlington Heights, 302 N. Dunton Ave.

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