Lucy Gluth of Sleepy Eye receives the Brown County Outlanding Senior Citizen of the Year award from Anna Covington during Senior Day ceremonies at the Brown County Fair.

Lucy Gluth is

Outstanding Senior;

Sesquicentennial Farm owned by

Eric and Shari Moll

By Kevin Sweeney

Journal Editor

NEW ULM — Lucy Gluth returned to the Brown County Fair on Thursday. She’s spent a lot of time there over the years working behind the scenes, but this time she was front and center on stage to receive the Brown County Outstanding Senior Citizen Award.

Gluth has served as president of the Brown County Agriculture Society Board, which puts on the fair every year, from 2011 until January this year. She had served on the fair board since 1999.

Anna Covington, who presented the award to Gluth as a new member of the fair board, cited Gluth’s long involvement with the community.

“I’ve known Lucy for quite a long time. I grew up with her being our 4-H Extension coordinator, so she was down there at that end when I was in Cloverbuds in 4-H. So I’ve known her for many years. She retired from the Brown County Fair Board last year, and this is my first year, so I’ve relied on her guidance for that as well.”

“Lucy has been a huge, huge part of our community for many years,” Covington said . “Besides working as the 4-H Extension Coordinator, she was a partner on her farm for many, many years. She has never, never slowed down. In fact, she may have sped up since she retired, I don’t know,” Covington said.

Gluth is originally from the Gaylord area, and farmed with her husband and raised her family near Morgan. She now lives in Sleepy Eye.

Since her retirement from the fair board, Gluth has joined the board of the Brown County Historical Society, said Covington, finding a new way to serve the community.

Other activities include serving on the Eden Methodist Cemetery Association, and participating in the ALS Walk in Mankato, a major fundraising drive each year to raise money for Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis. Her team was recognized in 2016 as the top all time fundraising team.

Gluth has been active in Bridging Brown County, a county-wide leadership development and networking organization for people all over the county since its beginning. In 2015, she received the Bridge Builder Award from BBC.

She has worked with Morgan Community Meals, and New Horizon’s Women’s club, serving many years as treasurer.

Century Farm Awards

During the Senior Citizen program, the Brown County Farm Bureau recognized the 2018 recipients of Century Farm recognition, and a Sesquicentennial Farm recognition.

Greg Bartz, president of the Brown County Farm Bureau, said the Century Farm award is a joint program of the Minnesota Farm Bureau and the Minnesota State Fair. It recognizes farms that have been in the ownership of the same family for 100 years or more. The Sesquicentennial Award, which is a Farm Bureau program, recognizes farms that have been in the same family’s ownership for 150 years.

Century Farm designation went to the George and Jan Erickson farm near Springfield, also known as the , which was established in 1878, and the Ronald Windschitl farm in Comfrey, which was established in 1914.

The farm was established by John W. Windschitl, who bought the land from the Hunter Land Co. for $67 an acre. He operated the farm until 1932, when he sold it to his son, Frank B. Windschitl. in 1973 Frank sold it to his son Norbert, who in turn sold it to his son Ronald in 1982.

The sesquicentennial farm is owned by Eric and Shari Moll. Eric is the 5th generation of his family to own the farm in Milford Township, north of Essig, which was purchased by Eric’s great-great-grandfather Henry Moll in 1865 after he returned from the Civil War. He purchased it from a widow who had lost her family in the U.S.-Dakota War in 1862. He paid $8.72 cents per acre for the farm. The Molls received the farm from Eric’s parents, Richard and Marlys, and hope one of their children will become the 6th generation. They have three children, Amber, Henry and Emily, who is 11 months old.