Jewell Swofford calls 65 years worth of auction

Jewell Swofford has been calling auctions for about 65 years, but now he’s calling it quits.

Jewell started his career as an auctioneer as a boy in seventh and eighth grade country schools selling box suppers.

The first farm sale that he actually got paid for doing was in 1940 for Burt and Eunice Croy. Mrs. Croy had been his school teacher.

Though he never went to auctioneer school, Jewel learned the ropes working for 10 years with Colonel Bill Reed from Jamesport. He learned how to keep the crowd’s attention and the sale moving at a fast clip and he mastered the torrent of words in an auctioneer’s call.

"I learned the chant pretty quick," he said. "I’d done it for fun when I was in school."

In his many years of auctioning, Jewell has sold: "Everything there is to sell. From monkeys to airplanes."

He specialized in livestock sales. He sold at the Gallatin Auction Barn for 15 years; for J. C. Penney Home Place farm at Hamilton for 18 years (he and a friend also sold the farm at auction); for Grant City Cattle Auction for six years; for Stanberry Livestock Auction for five years; cattle for the Bethany auction every week and horses every two weeks for nine years; and the Maryville cattle auction for about a year.

While most auctions used two people, Jewell had enough command of the rostrum to wield the gavel alone. Of course, that could be pretty wearing on voice and body. Once he and his wife Margaret were pulling into their driveway after an all-nighter selling horses. Their neighbor asked where they were going so early. They answered: "We’re trying to get home."

Even a practiced auctioneer can get frazzled. Jewell came across one of his most enthusiastic bidders during a cattle sale at Hamilton. A big yellow dog was sitting with its owner on a bleacher.

"An auctioneer watches the whole crowd for a signal," said Jewell. "I’d keep coming back to a movement. Only it wasn’t a person. It was that big dog wagging his tail."

He held consignment auctions in a building near the Gallatin square for close to 20 years. He used to call for the Missouri State Fur Auction at Sedalia where they sold furs of all kinds. Those could get pretty hectic; the last one he auctioned for sold 31,000 furs. It started at 8 a.m. and went until one in the morning. He did that for 13 years.

Farm auctions, he said, are pretty much all alike. He has sold at farm auctions in Kansas, Iowa, Texas, Oklahoma and Missouri.

There was one auction that was more memorable than the others. He’d finished a sale at Bethany and a man asked him to help load up a horse.

"I went over to his car and him, his wife and two kids were sitting in the front seat. He wanted me to lead that horse in the back seat of the car. Which I did. It was a pretty big horse."

After that long stint auctioning, he was elected Daviess County Commissioner and served on that board for 18 years. He still called auctions part-time when one came along.

He said if he had a camcorder along during one strange sale he’d have made a fortune. He was asked to hold an auction for an eccentric individual who actually made his home in an old threshing machine in Altamont.

"He broke out a window and handed antiques out to me," Jewell recalls. "He had hogs, horses and everything else. We’d come to a hog running around and somebody’d bid on it. He’d holler, ‘No sale! Run it back!’ He did that with everything. I had to sell it before he would say whether or not it had sold. People got to where they’d egg him on, bidding on things just to see what he’d do."

One of Jewell’s biggest disappointments occurred after he’d been asked to auction the largest mule sale ever held in Tennessee. Jewell knew mules and had his own ‘jumping’ mules so he was really looking forward to it. Unfortunately, the owner of all those mules was killed in a car wreck right before and the sale never happened.

Jewell’s son Gary and his daughter Karen auctioned with him for probably 20 years and his wife Margaret was his bookkeeper and clerk and helped him handle everything and joined him on most every sale. He’s been the mentor of many wanting to make a go of the business.

"I’ve helped every young auctioneer there’s been in this part of the country, and they’ve helped me," he said.

A mind-boggling amount of miscellaneous items comes across an auction block, from coins to combines. To keep up with the value of all those lots of merchandise he read trade journals.

"It helps to know a little bit about everything. You need to have a good idea of what the price is, new or used or otherwise."

But he couldn’t research every item that came along and he’s had a few surprises. Karen was selling at an auction and asked him for advice on the price of a Fender guitar. Jewell told her it would go for about $500. It went for $15,000. "I didn’t know," he said. "I had no idea what that was."

Auctions are a social event and are as much entertainment as anything. At the horse sales in Maryville, people came from 16 states to watch the auction just for fun. "Not necessarily to bid," Jewell said. "They had no idea of buying any."

He’s seen people go hog wild when bidding and ordinary things go for astonishing amounts. Those "bidding wars" and "auction fever" aren’t a phenomenon he can explain. "I don’t know what gets into people," he said.

Auctions have changed from the early years and have even gone high-tech. Margaret likes to look at e-bay and internet auctions, but Jewell isn’t in to computers. "I don’t fool with that thing very much," he said.

Probably the biggest change has been in the prices.

"When I first started baby calves brought $5 or $6 a piece. Now they bring $200 to $300."

Jewell said his profession is a good one for young people to get into. "As long as they don’t get disgusted. If they do, they won’t make it."

By ‘disgusted’ Jewell means that the business is hard to break into. "If nobody gives them a chance to sell their auction. A lot of people want an auctioneer that has experience. I was lucky in that I never asked but for two auctions in my lifetime. One I got and one I didn’t."

He says the business is getting more and more competitive, and tactics aren’t as civil as they used to be. As an example, Jewell mentions a lady who called him a few weeks ago wanting him to do her auction. Jewell said he would and she said she’d call with the date. But she never called back.

"Within two weeks two other auctioneers got the auction," he said. "I never did get mine that way. I’m old fashioned. You should get the auctioneer you want to get."

Gary and Karen will continue the auction business in their father’s stead. Jewell said he’s going to miss it. He plans to just take it easy now that he’s retired.

"I’ve had a little trouble with my legs, but I’m still going to try to do a little fishing and hunting."

He may go to an auction now and then. "It gets in the blood," he said.