The Horst family has been in the auction business since approximately 1900. Started by A. A. Landis, Tim and Tom’s great-grandfather, and carried on by his son-in-law, Titus S. Horst. Titus continued to call auctions part-time, as well as building homes as a master carpenter. His experience was passed on to his son, T. Glenn Horst, who entered the auctioneering business in 1956.
T. Glenn carried on his dad’s tradition of building custom homes by day, and calling sales in the evenings and on Saturdays. In the early 1960’s, T. Glenn offered his services to the Cocalico Valley Historical Society, calling their sales on a volunteer basis until the late 1980’s.
T. Glenn’s oldest son Timothy decided in 1976 to follow in his father’s footsteps and became an auctioneer and carpenter. Listening to his dad’s calling ever since he was a child, Tim became an auctioneer at the age of 16. He drew heavily from his dad’s experience. Tim and T. Glenn worked a full schedule building custom homes and conducting auctions, all the while enjoying their opportunity to work side by side.
In 1982, T. Glenn’s youngest son, Thomas, joined the family business by way of clerking at sales and building homes. After many years of prodding by his dad, Tom finally decided to step up to the microphone and help call sales in 1988. The company continued calling sales on-site for estates, and began to rent fire halls to conduct consignment sales and catalogued antique sales.
