Project Scroll Research Note 2026-58
Walter L. Schrock and Levi J. Yoder, partners in the Shipshewana Auction Company in 1964
Summary
The history of the Shipshewana auction, from which the Shipshewana flea market grew, is usually told as a line of single owners. A federal order of 17 December 1964 under the Packers and Stockyards Act names “Walter L. Schrock and Levi J. Yoder, partners, d/b/a Shipshewana Auction Company, Shipshewana, Indiana,” registered as a dealer and as a market agency selling livestock on commission; no history of the market that we have found names Yoder. The same order, with Fred Lambright’s obituary, also corrects the county history of 1982, which says that “Upon Lambright’s death in 1966” the business was bought by Walter Schrock: Lambright died on 29 January 1966, and Schrock was already running the auction, as an owner in partnership, by 1964.
The record
U.S. Department of Agriculture, Agriculture Decisions 23 (1964), p. 1499: In re Walter L. Schrock and Levi J. Yoder, d/b/a Shipshewana Auction Company, P&S Docket No. 3401, decided 17 December 1964
“Respondents Walter L. Schrock and Levi J. Yoder, partners, d/b/a Shipshewana Auction Company, Shipshewana, Indiana, are now and were at all times material herein engaged in the business of selling in commerce livestock on a commission basis”
Internet Archive · See the record
Obituary of Fred M. Lambright, Gospel Herald 59 (1966)
“Lambright, Fred M., son of Michael and Suzanne (Yoder) Lambright, was born in Lagrange Co., Ind., July 1, 1900; died of a heart attack Jan. 29, 1966”
Internet Archive · See the record
7 Score and 10: La Grange County’s 150th Year (1982)
“Upon Lambright’s death in 1966, ... the business was purchased by Walter Schrock, who recently sold the business to Robert Lambright and sons.”
Internet Archive · See the record
What it changes
A second partner in the Shipshewana auction, Levi J. Yoder, is added to its line of owners, and the 1982 county history’s statement that Walter Schrock bought the auction after Fred Lambright’s death in 1966 is shown to be wrong: Schrock and Yoder were partners in it by December 1964, while Lambright was alive.
Limits
The order names the partnership as it stood in 1964; it does not say when Yoder joined or left it. The year Schrock took over, 1961, rests on his obituary and the owners’ blog, cited in the article.
What we searched before calling it new
7 Score and 10 (1982); the Trading Place’s history pages and blog; KPC News (2022); the Gospel Herald (1966); Schrock’s obituaries (2010); the Federal Register, 1959–1985; Agriculture Decisions, 1964 and 1967; school yearbooks of 1950–1964; web searches.
Our standard for calling a finding new is set out in How we research, and how we weigh each kind of record in Scrollsigns.
“New” means new to print as far as we can tell. If you know of an earlier publication, tell us and we will credit it here and raise the note’s version.
Works cited
Earlier work, catalogues and databases named in this note, besides the records quoted above.
- Shipshewana Trading Place blog, “It all started with 6 pigs and 7 cows …,” 22 February 2013. https://shipshewana.wordpress.com/tag/history/
The full story
The finding is set out in context, with the rest of its sources, in How a farm sale became a flea market. In the discoveries register:
How to cite this note
Michael Urbanski, “Walter L. Schrock and Levi J. Yoder, partners in the Shipshewana Auction Company in 1964,” Project Scroll Research Note 2026-58, version 1 (5 November 2026), https://projectscroll.com/discoveries/notes/2026-58/. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.23968752.
BibTeX
@techreport{urbanski202658,
author = {Urbanski, Michael},
orcid = {0009-0006-8183-5828},
title = {{Walter L. Schrock and Levi J. Yoder, partners in the Shipshewana Auction Company in 1964}},
institution = {Project Scroll},
type = {Project Scroll Research Note},
number = {2026-58},
year = {2026},
month = {nov},
url = {https://projectscroll.com/discoveries/notes/2026-58/},
doi = {10.5281/zenodo.23968752},
note = {Version 1}
}