A few weeks ago I wrote a column about some Renfrew County articles I received from a woman who lives at Sauble Beach by Lake Huron. She sent me numerous pages from the Family Herald magazine of the 1960s. She wrote that she had read my columns for decades and wanted me to have the old clippings from The Family Herald that she had saved up.
One interesting article is a two-page feature with 13 photos of an auction sale conducted by Ken Eckford of Forester’s Falls at the farm home of Mr. and Mrs. John T. Burchat of R.R.1, Douglas. The farm had been sold to Allan and his son Barton Kurth. The article was featured in The Family Herald on Oct. 12, 1967 and was written by Brenda Lee Whiting with photos by Larry Lesage. I should add that Brenda Lee-Whiting (1929 -1994) was an Ottawa Valley author and historian.
It is interesting to see how auction sales were conducted in those days. There’s a photo of two Holstein cows in a ring but the ring isn’t made of steel gates. It’s a human circle of farmers and Eckford is walking among the cows with his cane. Just Ken and the two cows. The caption underneath says: “Kenneth Eckford takes bids on a pair of Holsteins. He is well qualified for the job, being the owner of 100-acre dairy farm himself. Sixty auctions a year is his average.”
Other photos show Eckford at work and his two busy clerks — retired schoolmaster Willis Hawkins and retired farmer Percy Brown. Brown is seated behind a small desk in a shed accepting payments from the buyers. The auctioneers such as Arnold O’Neil and Eckford didn’t have with a travel trailer for their clerks to sit in.
Back in those days people didn’t register their name and address with the clerk and given a number to hold up when they were the successful bidder. The article says: “It was obvious that the crowd was accustomed to the auctioneer — and he to them. Rare was the occasion when he had to ask a name of a successful bidder. Many of the bidders came from the Wilno-Barry’s Bay area and were conversing in Polish, and that was hardly less intelligible to the uninitiated than the rapid-fire, singsong delivery of auctioneer Kenneth Eckford of Forester’s Falls.”
Some things haven’t changed at a sale. The article says: “Mr. Eckford believes in disposing of the “small stuff” at the beginning of the sale. ‘I always keep the livestock until the last in order to keep the crowd,’ he said.”
By the time the auctioneer moved to the households goods, he commanded the full attention of the crowd, estimated at 600. The item which had attracted most attention prior to the sale was a 110-year-old spinning wheel in perfect condition. It fetched $65 in the auction and the owner, Mrs Burchat, was delighted.
Lunch was provided by the Catholic Women’s League of Douglas — homemade sandwiches, beans, pies and coffee for 60 cents a head.
Looking at the many photos from 50 years ago, I recognize some of the people in the crowds. But they have passed on, as has our way of life.
