Old newspaper offers cup full of info

Last week I was browsing through the New Year’s Day edition of the Portales Valley News from 1925.

The front page featured a recap of accomplishments made by Portales during 1924, including paving 12 blocks in the business section of town, completing a new Baptist orphanage, building more than 50 new homes, paving “one mile of concrete connecting the Clovis and Elida highways,” and becoming “a recognized cotton and broom corn center.”

Below that was a shorter section titled, “Portales in 1925,” with a list of goals for the town to tackle in the year to come.

Those included securing a canning factory, building several new brick businesses, organizing a Chamber of Commerce, and becoming “a city of 5,000 inhabitants.”

But it was four large ads for public farm and livestock sales that captured my attention.

Each of them occupied a solid quarter-page and had detailed listings of what was available, including “3 sets bed springs,” “7 cane chairs,” “1 white faced heifer, 3 years old, giving milk,” and “12 horse collars, sizes 17 to 21 inch.”

The owners must have had some communication, because they’d all picked different days for their sales.

The first, on the Roscoe Creek place owned by J.D. Basinger (“2 miles east and 1 mile north of Dora”), was scheduled for Jan. 2.

The second, owned by C.W. Lackey (“6 miles west and 4 miles north of Rogers”), was set for Jan. 7.

The third, owned by Austin Fullerton and his partner only identified as Long (and situated “23 miles southeast of Portales”), was on the calendar for Jan. 8.

And the last — a property owned by A.B. Smith and located “six miles southwest of Portales and one-half mile north of the Tinsley place”—was slated for Jan. 9.

All four of the auctions promised a free lunch at noon, and all four had the same directive: “Bring your cups.”

That’s the kind of detail that fascinates me.

I did a little looking at other newspapers and found out “bring your cup” regularly appeared in auction ads in that era, and sometimes even “bring your cup and spoon.”

But I have so many questions: Were the cups just used for coffee or other beverages, or was the meal served in a cup? Were they typically metal cups, ceramic cups, wooden cups? Did everyone carry cups to events in that era? Did folks leave a cup in their wagons or other vehicles, just in case?

A Boston lawyer named Lawrence Luellen is credited with inventing paper cups — which he dubbed “Health Kups” — in 1907 as a way to stem the spread of germs that thrived in communal drinking places.  

It’s quite easy to believe they hadn’t made it to Roosevelt County by 1925, or if they had, not to farm auctions.

There is something endearing about picturing those crusty old settlers toting their cups as they shopped for Jersey heifers and egg incubators and cream separators.

Fullerton and Long’s ad promised “a big free lunch,” upping the ante with this pledge: “We are going to kill a beef and make a big pot of soup.”

They might have needed a bowl for that one.

If anyone has memories of the auction cup days, I’d love to hear them.

Going once … going twice … sold.

Betty Williamson hopes she’ll find a cup at the bottom of this rabbit hole. Reach her at:

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