Farm Auction Stories: Auctioneer honors a father’s legacy…

Clint Bauer Farms T Shirt
(Photo courtesy of Nate Bauer.)

Today’s Interesting Iron is going to be a little different. Normally, I write about tractors that you can bid on. However, every now and then, stories come up from farm auctions that deserve to be told. This is one of them.

Clint Bauer was a farmer and mechanic in Lacona, IA, about an hour or so south of Des Moines. He was a life long fan of Oliver/White tractors, and he had a thing for the old 2-stroke Detroits. I didn’t have the chance to meet him, but I feel like we’d have gotten along really well (and enjoyed going deaf together)!

Clint Bauer on his favorite Oliver tractor
Clint loved his Olivers, especially this one with a 4-53 Detroit in it! Even drove it to his son’s wedding in 2019! (Photo courtesy of Danni Bauer.)

Sadly, this past October, Clint lost his life in a farm accident during harvest. He was well-known and respected in Lacona, and when he passed, the town came together to bring in the harvest. Over 50 farmers put their own harvests on hold to finish the remainder of the corn and beans for the grieving Bauer family. Clint was always quick to lend a hand whenever he could, and for the local farmers in Iowa, this was a practical way that they could pay their respects.

In and of itself, that’s a great story (you can read a great account of it here in the Iowa Soybean Review), but it’s not unique. Farmers band together every year to do things like this, because that’s who we are. You’ve seen similar stories before, and I’m sure you’ll see ’em again.

That’s not where this story ends, though.

About three weeks ago, Mark Putney, one of our Tractor Zoom auction partners, hosted the Bauer family’s farm sale. It was very well attended, and Mark set several auction price records (one that might be unbreakable). More on that in a sec…

A great big heart for his community…

Putney Auction Service team photo
This is Mark (center of the back row) and the Putney Auction Service team from Indianola, IA. We’re very fortunate to have them as an auctioneer partner at Tractor Zoom! (Photo courtesy of Putney Auction Service.)

Putney Auction Service is a successful company that handles everything from estate auctions to collector stuff to farm equipment. Steering the ship is Mark Putney, a second generation auctioneer from Indianola, IA. He’s also of the biggest-hearted guys I’ve ever met in this business.

Mark believes very strongly in our farm kids. Every year, he donates his time, calling dozens of charity/benefit auctions for local schools, FFAs, county fairs, and churches. His company handled the sale of Luke Wickett’s Allis Chalmers B that I wrote about a few months back. He even held the auction open for a few extra days for me so we could promote it a little harder through the blog post!

allis chalmers b tractor at a putney auction service sale
Putney Auction Service recently handled the sale of this 1946 Allis Chalmers B, restored by Luke Wickett, the young man standing behind it!

In fact, it was a charity fundraiser that underlined the Bauer family’s decision to use Putney Auction Service for their sale. Nate told me that the day of a football jersey auction for a local high school, Mark showed up super-early just so he could get to know the players personally. And when the auction started, Mark had an inside joke or a story for every one of those jerseys. Nate said, “You just don’t see that kind of attention to detail these days, and watching him work reinforced our decision to have him handle the sale.”

Mark has been one of our Tractor Zoom auction partners for over three years, and we’re proud to have him aboard! He doesn’t have any farm sales listed right now, but keep checking back. It won’t be long before he’ll have a yard full of equipment ready to go!

Check out Mark’s listings on Tractor Zoom

Honoring a father’s legacy…

Despite being a muddy mess (Mother Nature had her way with the pasture in the days preceding the sale), the sale was VERY well attended. It was well-advertised to begin with, so that came as no surprise.

Putney Auction Service farm sale
Late March is awful hard on pastures here in Iowa, but it didn’t stop the bidders from attending Clint Bauer’s farm sale! (Photo courtesy of Mark Putney.)

The star of Clint’s equipment lineup was definitely the White 4-225. It was his favorite workhorse tractor (also the first one off the line). His sons grew up in that cab with him. It wasn’t going to be real easy to see that one leave the farm for good.

Family
The Bauer family: Nate & his wife Danni, Janet (Mom), Brandon & his wife Nikki. (Photo courtesy of Nate Bauer.)
Bauer 4 225
The Bauer cousins grew up helping their Uncle Clint on the farm. From left: Cale Gebhart and his dad Chad, Ross Bauer, Nate Bauer, and Brandon Bauer. (Photo courtesy of Chad Gebhart.)

Mark knew this, and he did a really classy thing. He scoured the internet high and low to find a 1/16th die cast White 4-225. These aren’t easy to come by! With just two days left before the auction, he finally found one in Omaha. He ended up having a pretty late night driving out there and back to pick it up!

4 225diecast Copy
Thanks to Mark Putney, this WFE 4-225 die cast will remind the Bauers of good times spent in the cab of the real one from the farm. (Photo courtesy of Nate Bauer.)

Before he sold the big one, Mark gave the die cast to Nate and Brandon. The look on their faces said it all. I know that Nate had a tough time keeping it together, and I suspect that many of the bidders got a little choked up too. Here’s a short video of how it happened. (Apologies for the video quality, but I think you get the drift.)

Sometimes it’s the simple, small gestures that mean the most, y’know? Mark didn’t make a big deal of it, because that’s not his style, but it meant the world to the Bauer family.

Highlights from the sale…

The auction was a massive success, and I know that the Bauer family was thankful for Mark’s hard work. Nate told me that during the process of cataloging the equipment, Mark it really easy on the family. He told me, “Mark said, ‘Nate, you guys do what you need to do. I won’t pester you unless I absolutely have to. You’ve got enough on your plate’.” For a family that was still putting the pieces back together, this was a blessing.

The White 4-225 went to a buyer in Indiana, and it set a price record that’ll be pretty hard to beat. $47,000! Obviously, it had some history pushing it in the right direction; being serial number 1 tends to do that. Additionally, while it was still in its work clothes, the interior was cleaner than average. Nate and his dad had also replaced the motor fairly recently.

White 185
Clint Bauer’s White 185 sold for $36,000! Here it is during harvest of 2020.

One other highlight from that sale was this White 185 MFWD. This workhorse hammered home at $36,000! It wasn’t an all-time record-setter, but you’d have to go back to 2005 to find a higher sale!

Final Thoughts

Oftentimes, the toughest part of an auctioneer’s job (especially with estate sales) is helping a family grieve and helping them be okay with sending things home with new owners. I’m sure every family goes through that to a certain degree. Material possessions, whether it’s Dad’s Field Boss tractor or Grandma’s Kitchen Aid mixer…they all have strong memories attached to them. They tie us to the people who used them. At the end of the day, auctioneers help the family prepare to let those things go while retaining those memories. Not an easy thing to do.

Mark’s small gesture to Clint’s sons really struck me. Giving them that toy tractor helped Nate and Brandon hang on to a really significant memory. When their kids are old enough to ask about their grandfather, they can point and say, “Grandpa and I spent a lot of time in a tractor like this one.”

For the Bauer sons, that toy tractor probably means more to them than Mark could ever know…

Special thanks to Nate & Danni Bauer, Chad Gebhart (cousin), Ross Bauer (cousin), and Mark Putney (Putney Auction Service) for the photos and videos. Mark & Nate, thanks for the time on the phone recently, too!

Find Oliver equipment at auction here.

Find White Farm Equipment at auction here.