August 1965
Antique dealers and collectors thronged to Iola yesterday for the auctioning of personal and household items to settle the Dr. F. L. B. Leavell estate.
Buyers by the hundreds crowded onto the lawn and porch and inside of the big house at the northwest corner of Cottonwood and East Street, (the former Northrup House, a B&B) for what the auctioneer, Ralph Smith, said was the biggest sale of household goods that he knows of in Iola. Many of the bidders were from out of state with some coming from as far away as Virginia.
Dr. Leavell practiced medicine in Iola for nearly 50 years. He died at age 85 in 1964.
The house was built by Lewis Northrup in 1895 and was sold in 1927 to Dr. Leavell. Originaly a 1½-story cottage, the house was expanded to three stories in 1907.
Dr. and Mrs. Leavell used the house as a showcase, including using its third-floor ballrom for lodge meetings and decorated it from their many travels abroad
Mrs. Leavell died in 1959 at age 61. They had no children.
