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Auction From 2 Weeks ago.

J

John B.

Well-known Member
I've been wanting to post these pictures of a homestead where an auction was held here in Highland IL.
The house had no running water not even a sink or bathroom in the house. There was a spring house several hundred feet from the home as you can see in the pictures. The water ran in the left side of the spring house then into a small bricked sump about 18" deep. There was a shelf on the left wall I guess where they put their clothes when bathing. The last son that lived there told some one he didn't want to spend another winter there. Sad to say he didn't die of natural causes a little over a year ago. The stove in the last picture was sold but I guess it was too heavy to carry out before the auction. The furniture was in excellent condition. Three generations of one family lived there. The Grandfather's immigration papers from when he came to the US from Germany were even sold at the auction. Hope you enjoy these pictures as much as I have.
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Very interesting. Reality is stranger than fiction at times. Neighbor back in Ind. had similar incredible furniture in the upstairs rooms and lived in squalor on the main floor. Jim
 
I've got one of my mothers old dressers, looks pretty close to exactly like the one in the eighth picture.
 
I don't know what the furniture went for. We had other plans that day and I went early that morning and was being nosey.
 
That is bound to be some real antique furniture! I grew up without indoor plumbing, stayed with Mom and Dad most of the time until I was 27. Even the place where I stayed when I was away from home only had cold water running in. I wouldn't want to, but in an emergency situation, I would be a lot better prepared to cope with it than most people today. Thanks for the post.
 
I thought sump in spring house was to keep food cool. Had one on grandfathers farm to put milk cans in to keep cool.
 
John B.,
Thanks for sharing. I'd have loved to go to that auction.

Great old furniture pieces and the house looks like it could still be saved if somebody had a mind to do so.

We have a tall wavy dresser like the one in the center of the 3rd photo from the bottom. It has 4 wavy drawers on the bottom and across the top are 3 smaller drawers. Belonged to my husband's grandma.
 
nice pics
funny how most of us have had furniture just like that, and just threw it away when the woman just had to have a 'new' something.
I, too, grew up without indoor plumbing. Got running water when I was very young, but no toilet until I was 10 or so.
My mother grew up poor and in her mind, NO WAY was we gonna do THAT inside the house.
That's what the outhouse is for.
My camp where I live for 3 months still doesn't have running water, and is outhouse only. Ya get used to it.

I'd definitely save that house. roof and foundation don't look too bad. porch ain't even fell down yet.
Clean it up, throw a rug on the floor. done
looks like nice land, I'd live in it. Actually looks better than my house when I bought it. And still better than some of my neighbors houses......
 
John, I don't think that they bathed in the spring house. The shelf was probably use for keeping things cool, such as milk etc.. Those old stoves aren't that heavy if you disassemble them. Auctioneer probably didn't want to take the time to reassemble it.
 
This is not far from Highland. I rented land from a family that sold 160 acres for the jr college at the se cornor of Green Mountain Road and Rt 161. In 1969 Mr. Biebel lived in a large house in the ne cornor there. It was rather primative since his wife had died, but I remember a walnut curved stair banister in that big house. He later lived in a trailer closer to the horse barns until he was shot by 2 East St Louis guys with his own gun. I have a large copper kettle that I bought from his sale. Lowes and Walmart are on that cornor now.

The JD dealer, Shiloh Valley Equipment is just east past Scott base. He has contributed greatly to the JD group within I&I tractor club for the Penfield and Rantoul shows.
 
Few years back (2000?) my sister bought a 40A piece just outside of Detroit (about 25 miles from center of the city). House on it reminded me of the one in the pictures. Had no indoor plumbing either. The elderly man that lived there with his wife and a couple of skinhead grandkids was blind. There was a path from the front porch to a hand pump in the yard. Old man knew that path to get his water. There was a porta-potty in the house for the man and woman. The grandkids used the field. I saw a lawnmower in the tall grass with a roll of toilet paper on the throttle lever. I stayed away from that area of the property. Sister ended up tearing down the house (walls full of ACTIVE bees nests) but sold the property before she ever developed it.
 
(quoted from post at 03:48:41 04/26/14) Very interesting. Reality is stranger than fiction at times. Neighbor back in Ind. had similar incredible furniture in the upstairs rooms and lived in squalor on the main floor. Jim
Click to expand...

We were in the antiques business for a short time in the mid-80s to mid-90's and saw lots of this, the old folks had no idea what people would pay for their old furniture, they barely survived sitting in the middle of lots of money. Probably didn't care either. A good friend (at the time... long story) had an aunt like that, had two houses full of really nice antiques yet she thought she was so poor she would steal the silver wear from the area restaraunts. They sold a huge cache of it at her sale. Another friend who had big family gathering bought most of it. The sale total from just the contents was near mid six figures. There were two farm properties with houses and out buildings too. All the machinery had been sold years before so nothing there to be had.

Sounds too like some old farts and their antique tractors that they won't sell, live like animals with a small fortune in machinery just rusting away.
 
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