At A “White-Topper” Auction (28 Photos)

Reader Jerry, an avid Amish auction-goer, is back on the Amish auction trail. He recently attended a sale held by Nebraska Amish — aka “white-topper” Amish, which is what some call them on account of their buggies with white tops.

This auction happened Saturday at a Zook farm on Back Mountain Road in Milroy, Pennsylvania (Big Valley area). This was to support the hospital benefit fund. Enjoy these photos from Jerry. The comments below are mostly his as well.


This auction was in Milroy. The east end of the Big Valley. They appear to be Nebraska (white toppers) but a bit more conservative than the Winfield or McClure Nebraska orders.

No electric light on the buggies. Blue kerosene lanterns only. They do not remove the SMV triangles when they park the buggies.

This group is not a blue door group but a few miles away in Reedsville you will find many blue door homes.

Nebraska Amish men and boys wear white shirts.

From my observations all Nebraska make basic quilts.

They tend to use the same colors and only about 8 patterns.

There is a long shot of a nearby graveyard.  The sheep are their lawnmowers.  Something new I noticed was the grave markers were homemade with what appears to be “Quickcrete”.  I did not get close enough to see if they are “engraved”. Next time I will get a closer look.

These folks still use phone shacks.

Pies galore.

Firearms.

Buggy frame.

Play time.

Things Jerry Bought

Jerry made off with a nice haul at this auction. He sends a separate batch of photos showing the things he bought, and in some cases the prices.

First, a broom holder in walnut.


Two jars of home made soap.

Interesting read on the label.


Home made butter. Says Jerry: “Yeah I bought four pounds. It’s like putting ice cream on everything.”


A treadle Singer sewing machine for shoes and/or harness.

$15.00 but it weighs about 120 pounds.

A recently made butter mold for $5.00.

Lye soap at $4.00 a bag.
For this one Jerry says, “Allow your readers to guess.”
I can give you the price – $20.00.
Three rhubarb plants. Price: $3.00
And that wraps it up.
Thank you Jerry for another nice look at an Amish auction. And well-done on all your purchases.

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    10 Comments

    1. Connie Fugate

      Missing girl

      Did they find the missing girl

      1. No news yet that I’ve seen. This afternoon I made a small update concerning the search, on yesterday’s post.

        1. Jerry

          recent local news

          All of the news organizations report massive efforts in the search but no results as of 7:30. Keep those prayers going.

    2. Walter Boomsma

      Mystery Item...

      I believe the mystery item is an outhouse seat. I cannot believe I didn’t know about this settlement… but then, it’s been quite a few years since I’ve been in that area. (Not being insensitive to the search for Linda… hoping and praying for positive outcome soon!)

      1. Mystery Item

        Amish hat holder. To keep hat from getting bent out of shape

    3. Walter Boomsma

      Well, I'll be...

      Hat holder does make sense… and I will resist the temptation to have fun with my mistake.

      1. Walter don’t knock yourself too hard on that one. That’s the same thought I had. It looks pretty heavy-duty to be a hat holder, at least compared to the English models I’ve seen.

    4. Jerry

      Mystery item.

      The Amish call it a hat press. These men and boys wear large brimmed straw hats. If a hats let’s wet they need these presses to reconstruct the shape. There were 12 at this auction in different finishes. My $20 buy was the lowest of the day the average price was $32.50 eacb.

      1. Thanks for clearing it up Jerry. Looks like you got a bargain! I can see why you wanted to put the question to the readers:) And good call by you Joseph.