Nestled in the rolling hills north of Watkins, the Kaufman Antique Museum might have been the biggest trove of antiques and memories that no one really knew about.

A smorgasbord of machinery, furniture, tools and memorabilia, the museum had everything a person could possibly be looking for from the days of yesteryear, including items that only a collector could love.

Glass washboards, potato diggers, fish decoys, threshing machines, moonshine, a clover huller, old Wheaties boxes, butter churners. Even a registry of early-20th century pew dues from St. Anthony Church in Watkins.

And this treasure trove of antiques, collectibles and nostalgia items is all up on the auction block.

The contents of the museum, collected primarily by Elmer Kaufman, will be auctioned off this weekend, the end of a museum which seemingly had everything.

“This is the biggest unsung treasure around here,” said Elmer’s son, Lewis Kaufman. “No one knew about it.”

Elmer Kaufman died in August at age 86. His family considered keeping the museum operating, but Lewis said the task is hard to imagine without the caretaker, collector, refinisher, tour guide and storyteller to run it.

“It was his treasure,” Lewis said. “It was his hobby, his passion.”

Elmer Kaufman took over ownership of the family’s century farm near Watkins in 1966. He opened the Kaufman Antique Museum in 1999 and filled it with a variety of antiques. The museum’s collections will be liquidated this weekend in a two-day auction.

The auction will be conducted Friday and Saturday. Starting at 10 a.m. both days, the farm and household antiques will be sold Friday, including the wrench collection, seats, hay tools and barn equipment. On Saturday, auctioneers will sell the tractors, engines and implements.

For a listing of items to be sold, visit www.aumannauctions.com.

Read more in the May 22 Independent Review on newsstands now.