The late Robert “Bob” Stovesand was the first man from western Jefferson County to go to school and complete an education in auctioneering, according to Robert Crean’s history, Photographs, Documents & History of Byrnesville, Cedar Hill, Dittmer, Local and Scheve.
Stovesand’s first auction was a household sale for Louis Fischer in 1939, and in 1940, Bob auctioned pies at a pie supper at the Scheve schoolhouse on Byrnesville Road for the benefit of the Home Economics Club.
Dean Wilson, who worked as an auctioneer with Stovesand and Sons Auctions beginning in 1988, said Bob often spoke about that first auction.
“Bob used to say that there was a guy at that first auction who told people, ‘Bob’s OK, but he’ll never make it as an auctioneer,’” Wilson said.
Stovesand was quick with a joke and had several qualities that led to his success in the auction business, Wilson said.
“He was well known, likeable and a “super salesman,” Wilson said. “I never knew anyone who was so universally liked as Bob.”
Born in 1914, he was the third generation of Stovesands in the Cedar Hill area. His father, William Stovesand, was a blacksmith. His grandfather, John Stovesand Sr., who came from Mecklenburg, Germany, was a farmer. The family homestead, a majestic two-story home built sometime in the late 1800s where Bob and his siblings were born, can still be seen on Hwy. B in Cedar Hill. There, on about 100 acres, next to the house, is a barn that still bears the faded remnants of the words, “Bob Stovesand Auctions,” painted on the roof by Stovesand and his brother-in-law, Archie “Dood” Livingston, said Mary Ulrich, Bob Stovesand’s granddaughter.
Early in his life, Bob was part of the famous Jefferson County All Stars baseball team, Wilson said.
“They went all over to play ball, and a bunch of them tried out for the St. Louis Cardinals, but Bob couldn’t hit the curve ball,” Wislon said. “They all told stories. He always told how he once met Grover Cleveland Alexander (a pitcher for the Phillies, Cubs and Cardinals who was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1938).”
Then, as an adult, Bob lived in that house on Hwy. B, raised Black Angus cattle and sold some real estate, but auctioneering was always his vocation, Eric Stovesand, Bob’s son, said.
He auctioned livestock, farm equipment, machinery, real estate and antiques, Eric said.
Ulrich said the secret to the success of an auction is showmanship, and her grandfather had that. Even in his private life, he had a bend for the dramatic, turning an old wagon into a museum piece complete with a recorded tribute, said his son Eric.
“Maybe it was because his dad, W.A., was a blacksmith and could often be found in the blacksmith shop keeping wagons and buggies on the road. Or maybe it was just the romance for the west that Dad had, but he had affection for the old horse-drawn wagon. In fact, he had one of those beloved works of art sawn in half from stem to stern and mounted it on the back wall of our basement,” Eric said. “Then he recorded his niece Jane reading a script that told the history of the wagon and how it changed the west with some sound effects and perhaps a musical score background. It was on one of the early versions of a reel-to-reel recording device with a speaker placed inside the wagon, out of view.
“With his stage set, he would invite friends and guests into our basement, serve appropriate libations and have them sit down in front of that wagon in relief (this was not a small lightweight representation but a full-sized, ready-for-work version), and he would play his recorded ‘tribute to the wagon.’ I’m sure he did this to over a hundred if not more unsuspecting, maybe confused, yet always entertained friends. It went on for years and added ‘history, romance, theatrics and even a little eccentricity’ to this bigger-than-life, affable, always friendly man, ‘the Auctioneer’ Bob Stovesand, my dad.”
Bob was married to Alene (Vaughn). They died just a few months apart in 2000, Wilson said.
“They were something together,” he said. “He always told jokes. I know I heard them each about 10 to 15 times. She must have heard them 50 times, but she always laughed as if it was the first time,” Wilson said.
“My dad was a man full of honesty and integrity and he could not only tell a joke but could retell a joke,” Eric said.
Ulrich said her grandfather was a people person.
“He always dressed for the occasion. He always had mellomints and Listerine in his car,” she said. “He loved what he did. He loved the people. He loved the camaraderie of it.”
His son John also went into the auction business and works in the St. Louis metropolitan area. Dean Wilson now has his own auction business and caters, for the most part, to auctions in more rural areas, Ulrich said.
LOOKING BACK is a new Leader online feature. Readers are invited to submit their historic Jefferson County photos for online publication. Send submissions to nvrweakly@aol.com or bring or mail them to the Leader office, 503 N. 2nd St., Festus (P.O. Box 159, 63028). Please include your name, phone number, a brief description of what’s in the photo and tell us how you came by it. Please also include when it was taken, where and by whom (if known). A new LOOKING BACK photo will be posted each Thursday.
