Personal business – not auction company – is being shut down

The J.L. Todd Auction Company, 28 Bale Street, is celebrating its 100th anniversary this year, so some Romans were caught by surprise to see a legal ad in last Thursday’s Rome News-Tribune revealing the intent to voluntarily dissolve the J.L. Todd Company. That however is not the auction house. The company being shut down was Todd’s personal business, not the auction company.

Frank Coker, president of the auction house, said Todd often used the L.L. Todd Company to conduct his own personal real estate transactions and investment deals.

“It hasn’t been used since Mr. Todd died,” Coker said. “Mr. Todd really didn’t use it very much at all during the last few years of his life.”

Todd died at the age of 86 in April, 2008. Coker said the auction company is still doing well and still conducting sales all over the Southeast. He said Todd went to great lengths to make certain that he didn’t mix his personal business with the auction company that also bore his name.

J.L. Todd Auction Company was started by local farmer C.A. “Buck” Todd in 1917 who led the business for 30 years before his son, J.L. Todd, took over as president in 1947.