Lake Zurich resident, Marvin Kruckenberg, is the remains of a bygone era. Kruckenberg runs the last operating, family-owned farm in Lake Zurich. His family has been farming for over 100 years, and while in those years, observing the face of farming change dramatically.

Before the Civil War, the people who came to the Lake Zurich area built farms for necessity. They raised livestock and crops to feed their families. General stores and the Union Store of Seth Paine allowed the farmers a market for trading goods like grain, meat, milk and its byproducts locally. In order to trade or sell products to Chicago, one or two farmers would load up a buggy with produce from the area and prepare for the long journey. They often stopped along the way to pick up goods from other farmers on the route, but the rough roads and long trek limited this practice.

The catalyst for this shift from farming for survival to farming as business was the Industrial Revolution. Railroads like the EJ&E, which was completed in 1895, brought the rural countryside closer to the markets of the big cities. Cattle, hogs, and dairy products could now be traded to cities like Elgin, Milwaukee, and Chicago. Agricultural schools studied production methods and passed on these methods on to the country farmer. Tractors, silos, herbicides and chemical enhancements were just some of the advancements recommended during the late 1800s.

By the turn of the century, farming was the main occupation of Lake Zurich residents. There were 150 family-owned farms-- even one in downtown Lake Zurich. Land was cheap and fertile, and many families like the Kruckenbergs continued the farms through the following generation. During this time cooperatives and agencies were created to regulate and monitor the booming farming industry for the protection of the consumer.

The Kruckenberg farms followed the advances in farming carefully. In 1938, they added concrete floors to the barns to keep the areas for dairy cows cleaner, according to the advice and regulations of the Milk Marketing Agency. They supported 120 acres of land and expanded the farms to a level that the family was able to maintain. But as each generation passed, the interest in farming waned. Family members moved on to other professions as the face of the community changed.

The first housing development in Lake Zurich was the Zurich Manor in 1950. It was the beginning of the end for farming in and around Lake Zurich. Slowly but surely, the land was sold for the construction of new homes. By 1994 there were only four farms left in Lake Zurich, which were run by descendants of some of the early settlers. First to settle, and last to leave.

Kruckenberg is not the only farmer in the area struggling to fight the computer age. Many farming developments are putting the farms out of business. Regulations and conditions designed to protect citizens have guaranteed that farming is a business best run by large facilities who can afford to keep up with those regulations.

Kruckenberg says he is the last remaining family member to uphold his grandfather's way of life. 'Me next generation cannot afford to farm in an area where strip malls are popping up everyday, local residents do not have the patience to drive behind slow farm machinery, or a tolerance for the scent of livestock. He keeps it going because it is his life, his hobby, his history. When he goes, a good part of the rural countryside of Lake Zurich will go with him-- another chapter in Lake Zurich's history closed forever.