September 13, 2023 at 6:00 a.m.
Sisters recall life at Lux Farm Supply
Like many small Minnesota towns, Albany had numerous implement businesses years ago. Replicas of three – Schiffler Farm Equipment, Lux Farm Supply and Peternell Implement – have been constructed on the Stearns County Pioneer Club grounds in Albany and two of them will be open during the Sept. 14-17 Albany Pioneer Days in rural Albany. The Schiffler Implement building was showcased for the first time in 2022, with Lux Farm Supply this year and Peternell Implement slated for 2024.
“It was our life,” sisters Carol Hallman, of Brooklyn Park, and Mary Luethmers, of Freeport, said in unison Sept. 5 talking about their family’s business, Lux Brothers Implement Co., later known as Lux Farm Supply.
“We lived it,” Luethmers said.
Lux Farm Supply was established in Albany in 1946 by their grandfather, Alex Lux, and their parents, Keith and Jean (Lux) Des Marais. At the time, the Lux brothers, Alex and Everett, had an implement business in Long Prairie, and they were doing so well they wanted to expand into Albany, Hallman said. At the encouragement of Everett, Keith and Jean joined Alex and opened the business on main street in Albany selling John Deere farm machinery, Maytag machines and New Holland balers. Alex passed away in 1952 and their parents took over full ownership, Keith running operations and Jean doing the bookwork.
“There were many implement shops in town and everybody had their own niche,” Hallman said.
The sisters recall farm machinery, which was much smaller at the time, displayed on a strip of open land just east of their main street building.
When land became available, and with a growing business, in the 1970s Lux Farm Supply moved across Interstate 94, selling John Deere equipment and Maytag, where it remained until 1986 when their parents retired and closed the business.
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