DEWITT - Eerie is the only way to describe the sound - or lack thereof - filling the cavernous building that once housed the Irwin Tools Vise-Grip plant in DeWitt.

Where once a great open space was filled with the sounds of industry - men and women operating enormous machines clamping and cutting and dimpling tempered metal into the most useful of hand tools - only the sound of an auctioneer remained this week, accepting bids for equipment that is no longer needed since the plant’s closure last year.

Cincinnati Industrial Auctioneers, auctioneered by Jeffrey L. Luggen, took bids on all remaining equipment, accessories and items left in the Vise-Grip factory Tuesday and Wednesday.

Everything from metal clamps to hammers, electric scales and industrial strength leaf blowers were sold in bulk to the highest bidder.

The crowds followed the auctioneer, who was perched high above the scene in a specially made podium on wheels.

Mike Coleman of RPM Rigging Inc., based in Jonesboro, Ark., watched the auction from behind the crowd. His company was hired to remove the 300,000 pound metal press near the back of the factory.

Coleman said it was tough not to notice former employees who had come to watch the auction. They were identifiable by the “long face” they carried.

“Companies contract with me to remove these machines,” Coleman said. “I know with these machines, jobs are leaving, too.”

More than 300 local jobs were lost when Newell-Rubbermaid decided to move Vise-Grip production to China last year.

Former Vise-Grip employee Wayne Winsing Jr. carried a box of day-old Casey’s doughnuts with him, offering a roll to any of his former co-workers.

Winsing was following the auction, hoping to secure his old locker from his time in the plant.

It was a rubber cubby where he used to store his lunch and other personal items when it was time to hit the factory floor; where he operated a large body blanker which punched out the bodies of vise grips.

Across the front of the locker, Winsing and co-workers had scrawled the words “It’s good!” and “It’s all right!” as well as “Made in America!,” mottos Vise-Grip employees used to live by.

“I’ve been looking for a job since last November,” Winsing said. He worked at the plant for 37 years.

“We had pride, we all got along,” Winsing said.

The hurt and sadness following many of the old plant workers is evident.

As Winsing and former coworker Janet McIntosh stood together, old stories from a better time were quick to follow.

McIntosh, who worked more than 33 years dimpling the jaws of vise grips to the body, felt the same way.

“I miss the people more than anything,” she admits. “My life was spent here.”

Watching the scene, McIntosh echoed the sentiments of DeWitt’s mayor Randy Badman, who explained that the auction felt like “a family sale and a funeral.”

The auction passed by the lockers Winsing had been holding out for.

The entire row went for $200 to someone Winsing didn’t know. He offered $20 for his single locker. The man refused.

Winsing showed McIntosh the inside of his locker. Across the inside door read “Wayne Winsing Jr.”

“I’ll never be forgotten,” he said.