Matriarch helped run orchard, farm market

Margaret L. Hoen, 1923-2012

6/25/2012

Margaret L. Hoen, 88, the mother of four who helped her husband sell and raise produce at their Springfield Township farm market and orchard, died Sunday in Lutheran Village at Wolfcreek.

Mrs. Hoen moved into the nursing and assisted-living facility in Springfield Township in 2006. She had been in poor health for the last several months, her daughter, Carol Ziegler, said. She did not know the cause of death but said her mother had dementia.

She worked alongside her husband, William Hoen, on their 100-acre farm and operated Hoen's Orchard and Farm Market on Holland-Perrysburg Road. The couple shared the apple orchard and market with Mr. Hoen's brother, Leo, and his wife, Wanda. A variety of vegetables and fruits were raised on the farm and customers could pick their own produce or buy it from the family-operated store.

"They had tomatoes, cucumbers, zucchini, strawberries, peppers, pumpkins in the fall, muskmelons, and watermelons," Mrs. Ziegler said.

Mrs. Hoen, who graduated with a business degree from Davis College in the 1940s, kept the books for the nearly 40 years the market and orchard were in business.

After Mr. Hoen died in 1981, Mrs. Hoen continued working at the market and orchard with her son, Michael, until 2001, when the family sold the farm and she moved to a nearby home on Holloway Road.

The former Margaret Snyder grew up in South Toledo and graduated from Libbey High School in the early 1940s, her family said.

She worked as a bookkeeper at Electric Auto-Lite Co. after earning her business degree. She met her future husband on a blind date, her daughter said. They were married May 4, 1946.

Her daughter, Ellen Leiendecker, said she adapted quickly from growing up in the city to becoming a farmer's wife.

"She said that she would never marry a farmer," Mrs. Leiendecker said. "She did grow to love it. She helped Dad all the time. When he got sick and couldn't do some of the stuff, she helped out."

Mrs. Hoen was a member of the Lucas County Farm Bureau Association. She and her husband were founding members of Providence Lutheran Church at Albon Road and Airport Highway. She had been superintendent of the Sunday school and vacation Bible school.

She also enjoyed sewing and attended meetings of the local historical society.

Surviving are her daughters, Ellen Leiendecker and Carol Zeigler; sons, Michael and David Hoen; 11 grandchildren, and nine great-grandchildren.

Visitation will be from 2 to 8 p.m. Thursday in the Neville Funeral Home, Southwest Chapel, 7438 Airport Hwy., where services will be at 10:30 a.m. Friday.

The family requests tributes to Providence Lutheran Church or Cherry Street Mission.

-- Mark Reiter