School auctions happen often across Amish America. Some of them have become rather well-known – happening in places like Jamesport, MO, Beeville, TX, Clarita, OK, and Rexford, MT.
Today we have a look at an ad from an upcoming event at Pawnee City, Nebraska.
There are some neat details here which show you what you can expect to find at an auction. The proceeds from these events help fund the operations of Amish parochial schools.
What’s for Sale
As you can see from the listing you’ve got goods in 8 categories:
- Buggies – Just one here, a “2-Seated Pony Buggy.”
- Machinery – A variety of farm implements like a manure spreader, steel wheel rake, and a 4-row corn planter.
- Tools & Misc – Some interesting items in the “Misc” part, including a lard presser, bee hives, and an “old type wooden seed cleaner”.
- Guns – Quite a few for sale, including a muzzleloader and BB guns. There’s also a hunting bow and BB guns. Some Amish are avid hunters or use firearms to keep the farm clear of pests.
- Quilts – two quilts on the docket, a brown and burgundy log cabin pattern, and a green “Grandma Fan”
- Horses & Tack
- Storage Buildings – Including a kids playhouse (kids need to be stored somewhere too I suppose) and a dog kennel.
- Cedar Furniture & More – Indoor and outdoor furniture items
What’s to eat
If you come hungry for breakfast, you’ll enjoy pancakes, sausage, eggs and fresh donuts. Yum.
Lunch is grilled chicken, hamburgers, homemade ice cream, and etc.
There’s also a baked goods sales. There’s no reason to go hungry an an Amish auction.
Who’s running the show
Interestingly, by their last names the auctioneers look to not be Amish. As this is a small settlement, that’s not really surprising. A larger community like Holmes County Ohio will have a number of auctioneers and some auction businesses with Amish men doing the calling.
In addition to the above, you’ve also got a raffle of a Nine Patch quilt and a coaster wagon. The sale is accepting consignments the three days before and the morning of the event.
Have you ever attended an Amish school auction? If you’d like to go to this one, it’s Saturday, May 20 (see the top of the attached ad for directions to the location).
You might also like:
Would like to find an Amish farm in the New York area to stay for a few day to experience Amish life first hand.
Robert you won’t find any “farm stay programs” run by Amish, but you might visit a community and make friends with someone. Here’s a guide to different communities in the state: https://amishamerica.com/new-york-amish/
Thank You
Thank You very much Erik
We have been going to this auction in Pawnee City, NE. for the past three or four years. Love going and seeing what all they have for sale. Always bring home baked goods and try to win a quilt from buying some raffle tickets. Their breakfast & lunches are always very good. Hoping they have flowers there again this year.
Nice to hear that Juanita! If you go again this year and feel like sharing what you find with us, you’re quite welcome. ewesner(at)gmail.com
I’ve attended several Amish school auctions in at least five different Amish settlements. To me, it seems like there are almost two kinds of these auctions.
One type is the kind that is attended by both Amish and non-Amish, but the majority of the people there seem to be non-Amish. These auctions run all day, from early in the morning til late afternoon, serve breakfast, lunch, snacks, etc. and have the same type of variety of items like listed in this post — everything from machinery to furniture, quilts and produce. They were held both indoors and outdoors, and had two or three auction rings going at the same time.
The other type I’ve attended were smaller, attended mostly by Amish, held in the evening and served only supper, held indoors, and more limited in types of things sold. Both of these (one at Nappanee, Ind., and one at Daviess County, Indiana) included auctioning many gift certificates such as meals in Amish homes, horseshoeing, lawnmowing, etc.
I especially remember the one in Daviess Co, Indiana. There were about 1,000 people there, with only about ten of us being non-Amish. Before the auction started, a large group of Amish schoolchildren sang for the crowd. This auction was a joint auction of about twenty Amish schools in the area and the proceeds were to be divided. No bargains were to be had! The gift certificates for the meals in Amish homes sold for especially high prices.
Nice description of the differences Al. Yes the last example you mention was more like a donation-via-auction than one where bidders are vying for a deal. At the Special Children auction I attended someone paid thousands of dollars for a simple piece of woodcraft made by a child.
Just curious was the Daviess County event held at Dinky’s?
Yes, you guessed it Erik — the Amish school auction I went to was at Dinky’s. Dinky’s is a great venue for any large auction in the Daviess County area — plenty of parking, lots of bleachers for seating, a large kitchen, etc. in the larger main building. And now for several years, they’ve had another large building about 100 feet north of the main building. At the Friday night auctions they use both buildings.
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I wanted to add another thought about what I wrote in the previous post. Both types of Amish school auctions I described were widely advertised in the public at large. I don’t live in any of the communities where I went to the auctions, but I think the local non-Amish people knew at which type of auction they would get bargains, (besides having an enjoyable time and good food).
At the first type (where the majority of people there were non-Amish), I (and many others) got things at good prices, even bargains. At the second type (very few non-Amish), prices were high and I didn’t buy anything, except some good food. So, I think the local people know where the bargains are!
amish auction day
a good day at the school auction with the Hillsboro ohio andy weaver community is a “be sure and come back again next year.” event.
this 7th annual (maybe its 8 or 9 years) event is always the first Saturday after the 4th of july. the quilts number anywhere from 50 to 75, from baby to king sizes a wide range of choices.
furniture, from traditional oak bedroom, kitchen hutches, benches, etc. to hickory rockers, tables, benches and more. quality, 1st class all the way.
about 4 to 6 rows of “mmm, that’s interesting” house-hold, garden items and misc. a large section of tools and farm machinery in another field.
always a large covered tarp section of furniture in mics stages of use.
food, well most of us know about that so I won’t go on but to say, this is the day for the bakers of the community to shine.
just a good old fashioned day of community shared by a diverse group of folks.
let the sun shine please………..
Sounds like a nice one from your description, Elaine. Fingers crossed for sun 🙂
Last year was our first visit to the Hillsboro area auction. What a great day! Good people, good food, good deals! Looking forward to this year for sure.
Bowling Green, MO
Hi Erik, long time, no see! The spring auction for Bowling Green, MO, is this Saturday, May 13th. If anyone is interested in going to that one but this time doesn’t work, it’s always the 2nd Saturday in May. Two years ago, they also started a fall auction. Not as big but still a lot of fun and lots of good stuff. Have a great week!
Beth, was happy to see your name pop up! Glad you dropped back by to let us know. You are the Bowling Green go-to person around here 🙂 I hope the auction is great, enjoy it. And for anyone interested in this one, how about a couple of old posts you might recognize:
https://amishamerica.com/bowling-green-missouri-amish-auction/
https://amishamerica.com/bowling-green-missouri-amish/
While Amish School Auctions is a current topic on Amish America, I thought I’d mention two such events in southern Indiana:
1) The 12th Annual Vevay, Indiana, Amish School Auction will be held on Sat. May 20th at 9958 Barker Road, Vevay, Ind. They don’t list a starting time, but I think it’s around 9 a.m.
2) The Canaan, Indiana Amish community just held its 14th Semi-Annual School Auction on Sat. May 6th at 244 Poplar Ridge Rd., Canaan, Indiana.
I’ve been to both of these auctions several times, had an enjoyable time, and have gotten bargains at both of them. They are smaller Amish communities, yet have full size auctions with everything from quilts to farm equipment for sale, and serve lots of good food.
This is an interesting area. There are three small Amish communities (Vevay, Canaan-Cross Plains, and Holton, each of a different Amish affiliation.
Thanks, Al!
Auction
Great article. Are there any auctions in Colorado?
Thank you