JUDENS AUCTIONING OFF HISTORY: LOCAL RAILROAD PIONEER LOUIS HOUCK'S MEMORABILIA TO BE SOLD

Andy and Jeanette Juden's Cape Girardeau home is filled with the footnotes of local history, much of it tied to railroad pioneer Louis Houck.

Andy Juden is the great-grandson of Houck, who brought railroads to Cape Girardeau in the early 1900s.

These days, the Judens are busy packing. They plan to move from their brick house at 306 Independence, at the corner of Independence and Lorimier streets, to a duplex.

On Saturday, they'll auction off a bit of history, including a more-than-century-old oak rolltop desk once used by Houck in his law office as well as items such as a Seth Thomas wall clock that once graced Houck's railroad depot in downtown Cape Girardeau.

Harlan Smothers is handling the auction. He expects hundreds to be on hand when the bidding begins at the Juden house at 9:30 a.m.

"There are not many that have the history behind it that this one has," said Smothers. Or that much furniture.

Besides the rolltop desk, the Houck items include two matching oak library tables, 10 cane-seated arm chairs, four sets of lawyer bookcases, a solid-cherry document cabinet with 40 small drawers, antique maps including an 1854 city plat map of Cape Girardeau, early railroad maps and three iron chairs from Houck's railroad.

Juden, 67, was born in the brick house, which was built by his grandfather in 1906. He and his wife have lived there for 41 years.

"We are just downsizing," said Jeanette Juden as she took a break from packing last week.

The Judens have little left of Houck's personal papers. They donated them to Southeast Missouri State University.

Andy Juden said Houck, a lawyer who spoke both German and English, kept voluminous records. "He was a great paper saver."

Juden said Houck had one whole drawer of claims paid to people whose livestock had been injured from trains.

"Mr. Houck was very good at writing letters. He had a penchant for calling things as he saw it," Juden said.

More than Houck memorabilia will be put on the auction block. The list includes a wooden rocking horse and other family heirlooms.

Their possessions include everything from an antique doll truck to tin soldiers, cigar boxes to old books.

They've collected a number of items, including a hotel slot machine.

The basement is crowded with an assortment of items ranging from a hand-cranked 1920-era brass cash register with wooden drawers to an old roulette wheel.

The cash register is from an old mercantile store that once operated in Cape Girardeau. The roulette wheel is from the Purple Crackle nightclub in East Cape Girardeau, Ill.

"The wheel was probably built in the 1940s," said Juden. Ax marks scar the smooth wooden wheel, reminders of when Illinois State Police raided the place in an effort to shut down illegal gambling.

The Purple Crackle nightclub is still in business today, but the gambling operation ceased decades ago.

The Judens insist they won't have trouble parting with their varied collections of furniture, toys, books and other items.

"You can get attached to things, but they are still just things," he said.

The Judens said they would rather auction them than put them in storage. "It would be like putting the Mona Lisa in a wooden crate," Jeanette Juden said.