JOHN HUNTINGTON
John Alfred Huntington, Sr., the youngest son of Colbert Clinton & Margaret Adelia (Jackson) Huntington was born February 10, 1941, in Eureka, Kansas. He was brought into the world with the assistance of midwife Nellie St. Clair who helped deliver over 700 children in the Eureka area. John passed away January 9, 2022, in Lawrence, Kansas.
John attended grade school northwest of Eureka on the River Road at the one-room Loy School House from his 1st to 8th grade years. His class sizes were between 5 and 10 kids total each year. It was a 1 ½ mile walk to school from his house, and he actually walked uphill both ways. He attended high school in Eureka where he played basketball and participated in track. John qualified for the state finals his senior year in the 60-yard low hurdles. He was a member of the Upper Fall River Jayhawkers 4-H club and Greenwood County 4-H counsel, serving as president in both organizations. In 4-H he showed cattle and won 4-H’s highest award, the Key Award. In high school he also was a member of the Eureka FFA and was president his senior year.
After graduating high school in 1960, John remained on the family’s Huntington Hereford Ranch raising cattle. He also worked for the Greenwood County Watershed District and worked at the Eureka Livestock Auction where he fell in love with auctioneering and learned his craft from Herb Rockhill. John married Nancy Caroline Griffith of Yates Center, on June 9, 1963. To this union, two sons were born.
In 1967, John attended and graduated from the Missouri Auction School in Kansas City, Missouri. He spent the next 47 years doing auctions all over Eureka, throughout Greenwood, and many other counties. Larry & Betty Richardson teamed up with John & Nancy for many years doing farm sales and lots of consignment auctions at the Memorial Hall in Eureka. After nearly every auction, you could find them enjoying supper at Mary Lou’s. John would almost always order the mountain oysters. In 1982, John & Nancy purchased the Wiggins building at 114 N. Main and opened Huntington Auction House. For the next 32 years, John & Nancy had regular consignment auctions every 2nd Thursday of the month. Later it was expanded to every 2nd and 4th Thursdays with estate sales on some weekends.
In 1973, John became a licensed Real Estate agent with Eureka Realty, so he could sell houses and land as an auctioneer. In 1985 he got his broker’s licenses and renamed the auction house, Huntington Auction & Real Estate.
John was a certified breeder through the American Breeders Association. He was able to help other cattlemen improve their livestock herd. He spent many years working for Allen Hall Construction, building and remodeling houses. Those skills came in handy when he and Nancy would buy investment property in Eureka and even while adding on and remodeling his own childhood home.
He also worked as a feed salesman for Nutrena Feeds at the Eureka Alfalfa Mill, east of Eureka, for Dale DeVoe, until the railroad was terminated in the mid 1970’s.
John was a member of many organizations in Eureka and Greenwood County. As a member of the Eureka Jaycees, where he served as president, John’s auctioneering skills were used at Eureka Downs where he did the Calcutta for the quarter horse races for many years. The Jaycees raised money for the Eureka community and put on the annual hamburger feed and fireworks show every July 4th at the City Park. He also served as co-emcee announcing all the different games. The 3-legged race, sack race, turtle race, hay staking contest and so many other games that were held at the ballpark each July 4th and telling jokes with Bill Corbin. They did this until 1976. John announced many 4th of July and Cattlemen’s Day parades, on the back of a trailer or flatbed truck, in front of the Greenwood Hotel. He helped auction at the Greenwood County Fair, Ducks Unlimited, and the Annual Lutheran Church Bazaar. He was a member of the Kiwanis Club for many years and past president, and the Greenwood County Fair Board. He served as Greenwood County Farm Bureau President two different times. First in 1976 and while president, Greenwood County hosted the 2nd Governor’s Tour and John accompanied Governor Robert Bennett on the tour of the county. John served as the Farm Bureau President again in 2004. In 2013, John & Nancy were honored as Farm Bureau’s Farm Family of the Year. In 2014, they received a Certificate of Appreciation from Farm Bureau as being Friends of Agriculture.
John & Nancy were members of the Kansas Young Farmers & Ranchers, where they went to many conventions and got to travel to Mexico City, Washington, D.C., and Hawaii. John participated for several years with the Governor’s One Shot Turkey shoot, allowing his property to be used for participants to hunt turkey.
He was a member of the Greenwood County Cattlemen’s Association, serving as president in 1980. John served as the parade organizer for the cattleman for many years. He always made it a point to put the horse riders in front of the politicians in the parade. He would say, “We have to put up with their horse manure, today they get to put up with ours!” In 2017, John & Nancy were honored by the Greenwood County Cattlemen as Grand Marshalls. He was a member of the National Association of Auctioneers. He was a lifetime member of the Christ Lutheran Church and served many years on the church council and served as president in the past.
Most recently he became a member of the Lawrence Breakfast Optimist Club.
John & Nancy enjoyed many summers at their Eureka Lake house. Most summer nights you could find them giving rides to friends and family on their pontoon boat around Eureka Lake. John made sure everyone knew where the nude beach was located! They loved hosting a potluck supper with family and friends each 4th of July at their lake house and then having a front row seat watching the fireworks from the deck.
John continued to feed and look after cattle, even after he had sold his herd. He leased his land or Dr. Terry Morris’ land and then looked after other people’s cattle during the grazing season. He loved feeding the channel cat and catfish in his ponds and at Eureka Lake. He loved showing people how he could call the fish in by saying “Here kitty kitty kitty.” Then it would almost look like something from Shark Week, when the fish would start going for the food.
In 2017, John & Nancy traveled to Germany for the 500th year of Martin Luther’s Reformation. They had the good fortune to visit the city of Leipzig, Germany, and the Saint Nicholas Church where John’s great grandfather Lehmann, from his mom’s side of the family, was from and the church he was baptized in, before he moved to the United States.
In 2019, John & Nancy moved to Lawrence to be closer to their son John, Jr. and his family.
John leaves behind his wife, Nancy of 58 years; oldest son, John Huntington, Jr., and wife, Alejandra Guzman Carrasco of Lawrence, Kansas; and son, Dwight Huntington and wife, Teresa Yribarren of Eureka, Kansas; two grandchildren, Samantha Huntington of Lawrence, and Ben Huntington of Kansas City; two step-grandchildren, Eugene Galvez of Playa del Carmen, Mexico; and Ale Galvez of Mexico City; his oldest brother, Clint and wife, Irene Huntington of Eureka; sister-in-law, Dixie Huntington of Eureka; sister-in-law, Joyce and husband, Alan Howard of Haven, Kansas; nephew, Justin and wife, Maretta Huntington of Emporia, Kansas; niece, Donelda and husband, Mark Perkins of Eureka; niece, Heather and husband, Cory Fuesz of Eureka; niece, Valinda and husband, Danny Koehn of Kansas City, Kansas; nephew, Vince and wife, Teri Burghart of Colwich, Kansas; and godson, Trever Kemp of Rosalia, Kansas.
He was preceded in death by his parents; brother, Don Huntington; and in-laws, Darrol and Vinita Griffith.
Memorial services will be held at a later date. Cremation has been effected. A private family inurnment will take place at a later date at Upper Fall River Cemetery.
In lieu of flowers, the family requests that memorials be made to Christ Lutheran Church. Contributions may be sent in care of Koup Family Funeral Home, PO Box 595, Eureka KS 67045, which is overseeing arrangements. Condolences may be left for the family online, at koupfunerals.com.