Jefferson County teenager Martin Drennen says history has always fascinated him. As a young boy, he’d beg his mother to take him to the Missouri History Museum so he could see artifacts or to the museum at Mastodon State Historic Site for archaeological digs.
Drennen, 19, who’s now studying anthropology and geology at the University of California-Berkeley, has taken his passion for all things old and started an online business selling antiquities and other items.
When Drennen was growing up in De Soto, he and his mother, Jennifer Compton, faced some tough times and eventually moved in with his grandparents on their farm southwest of De Soto.
He said he often took walks through the nearby woods to relieve stress. One day when walking on old logging trails, he found an old blue Ball mason jar. He took it back to the house, cleaned it up and researched everything he could about it.
He continued to visit the same area, finding more and more items. After researching his grandparents’ property, he learned the land had been lived on for centuries, first by Native American tribes and later others.
He now believes his grandparents’ land had served as a stagecoach stop along one of the oldest roads in Missouri.
Drennen said he has found countless Native American artifacts, fossils, minerals and antiques on the land.
A trio of pre-Columbian pottery standing figures being sold on Drennen’s website under artifacts.
The 2023 De Soto High School graduate said he was thrilled to get accepted to Berkeley, his dream school.
After finishing his undergraduate work, Drennen plans to earn a master’s degree in archaeology and a doctorate in paleontology.
“It’s definitely not easy to get into (Berkeley), especially for an out-of-state student,” he said, “but I did and I chose to accept it. Ever since, the opportunities have been unimaginable.”
One of those opportunities was starting his online business called Martin’s Timeless Vault this summer. The business, at martinstimelessvault.com, sells vintage pieces, collectibles and artifacts.
“This past year, my first year at Berkeley, I was talking with one of my professors in my archeological class, and we were talking about how I hope to have a business like this,” Drennen said. “And he said, ‘Well, why not just start it now?’ And I didn’t see any reason I could say no to that. So, I did, and I started it a couple of months ago.”
Drennen said he received a $40,000 Generation Change Scholarship from Berkeley and used about half of it for his first year of education and the other half for his start-up business.
Pictured is a Limoges miniature perfume bottle being sold under collectibles.
Stephen Andrews, a professor who teaches environmental earth sciences to first-semester Berkeley students, said Drennen is a good student and was more engaged in his class than some other students, probably because of his deep interest in history.
Andrews said Berkeley has “a lot of ambitious, go-getter types,” adding that Drennen has a bit of an entrepreneurial spirit and reminds him of a modern-day Indiana Jones.
He likes Drennen’s idea of starting a business that offers people the chance to obtain a piece of history and hopes the business helps Drennen fund his dream to get a PhD in paleontology, which will be expensive.
Drennen said the goal for his business is to bridge the gap between academia and the private sector and ultimately foster greater appreciation for shared heritage.
Part of that mission, he said, is to preserve history by allowing people of all backgrounds to acquire and cherish authentic items that tell a lifetime’s worth of stories.
Drennen said his inventory comes from all over.
“My most recent inventory run was in Kansas City at a private auction, and that’s where I got a lot of my recent high-end items,” Drennen said.
The business, which has a Facebook page and an Instagram profile, is starting off slow.
“That was to be expected,” Drennen said.
Over the summer, he focused on growing his inventory, which ranges from porcelain dishware to swords to pre-Columbian (before Christopher Columbus came to America) pottery. Prices range from about $15 to a few thousand dollars.
Drennen was home for the summer but headed back to California on Aug. 10, where he will focus on his studies and marketing his business.
He said one day he’d like to open a brick-and-mortar store in or near De Soto.
A storefront is just one of many dreams.
Drennen also is working with his best friend and fellow 2023 De Soto High graduate, Ethan Clark, to start a board game business. Clark attends Vanderbilt University.
“We love history, so we are planning on starting up our own historically accurate board game business,” he said.
Drennen wants to travel the world to acquire artifacts.
“I want to do my own archaeological digs and get the artifacts from the start,” he said.
Central America would be the primary focus.
“Somewhere like Mexico or Belize,” he said.
But another goal is to see all seven of the Wonders of the World – places around the world considered to be of great importance.