Emminga Sale is Big Event on Saturday

Golden New Era

Golden, Illinois

April 29, 1937

 

Note:  you might want to re-read the previous post, Emminga Goods Draw Crowds (written prior to estate sale) for a better understanding of the following briefer 1937 newspaper article, written after.   

 

EMMINGA SALE IS BIG EVENT ON SATURDAY

HUNDREDS ATTEND

All-Day Event is Held on Local Main Street; Goods Bring Good Prices

Golden was thronged by hundreds of curious last Saturday when the household effects of the Emminga estate—many of them accumulated by the late Margaret Emminga, who couldn’t resist a bargain—were sold at public auction.  The crowd was so large that State Highway Patrolmen John Jasper and George Meyer and Deputy Sheriffs, Jack Soebbing and Harvey Smith were called to direct traffic and keep order.

One block of the main street in the business section was roped off for the sale, and during the afternoon enough furniture and other household articles were sold to furnish several moderate sized houses.

Visitors and prospective buyers arrived early in the morning for the sale, which was scheduled to start at noon, and local restaurants and a booth conducted by the King’s Daughters of the Methodist Church, did a great business in selling short orders.  The sale was started promptly and continued until the last piece of furniture went under the auctioneer’s hammer.

The articles to be sold were placed in a row down the center of the street and a large flat bed truck was driven along the line.  On the truck were two auctioneers, the clerk and helpers, and the goods were auctioned from the truck.  As soon as the articles within reaching distance were sold, the truck was driven on a few feet, and the selling continued.

The auctioneers took turns at selling and E. R. Gronewold, one of the executors of the estate and also the clerk of the sale, was kept busy listing the buyers.  His brother, John L. Gronewold, acted as cashier.  The auctioneers were George Post and George Bartell.

It is estimated that 2,000 persons attended the sale.  Several hundred persons would be crowded around the truck at times, many of them just spectators, but many others bidding.  Hundreds of other persons thronged the street and took part in the bidding only when some article in which they were interested was reached.

Cars were parked for blocks each way from the business section.  Practically every section within a fifty-mile radius of Golden was represented at the sale.

Although most of the things sold were the Emminga household effects, several of the new tables and other articles were among the things Miss Emminga, daughter of Harm H. Emminga, had purchased because they were bargains.  Some of the tables had their original wrappings which were not removed until the day of the sale.  (end of write-up)

Note:  Margaret (Meta) EMMINGA was not married as far as I can grasp from the book, “When the Wind Blows” by Anna Wienke.  Reading between the lines, Meta seemed to have lived a life of somewhat isolation as an adult, trying to fill her empty soul with material things.  Meta’s obituary (see link below headstone photo) states “as a small child, she lost her hearing through sickness, which handicapped her very much through life.”

Although educated in Germany and later at St. Mary’s Academy in Quincy and surely to have met other learned individuals, Meta’s indulgences hint at something far deeper than education or possessions could provide.

EMMINGA, Margaret-Meta Obituaries