Holton Livestock Exchange celebrates 75th anniversary

Seventy-five years ago, Wes Harris of Holton helped build a sale barn for Frank Zibell east of Holton, in a time when the concept of merchandising livestock at auction was relatively new, as Harris told The Holton Recorder in 1978.

Over time, however, auctions became the prime method for selling cattle, hogs and other livestock, and the Holton Livestock Exchange — the sale barn that opened 75 years ago — is excelling at that practice, with Harris’ son, Dan Harris, carrying on the tradition established by his father.

The Livestock Exchange celebrated its 75th anniversary with a special dinner last Thursday at The Barn On The Prairie in Havensville, located at the far west edge of Jackson County along Kansas Highway 16.

Livestock Exchange owner and auctioneer Dan Harris, who greeted everyone at the door, said “close to 500 people” were served a steak dinner at the event.

It was a celebration of one of Holton’s longest-running businesses, which holds weekly livestock auctions on Tuesdays and got its start when the elder Harris, a Navy veteran of World War II, graduated in 1949 from Reisch Auctioneer School in Mason City, Iowa, and came to Holton to help Zibell build the sale barn atop a hill just east of Holton in 1951. He continued to work there, managing the operation, and in 1977, he and his wife, Melvina, bought the business.

By then, Dan Harris had graduated from Wetmore High School and had been working at the sale barn as an auctioneer. He and his brother, Larry, had followed in their father’s footsteps by graduating from Reisch Auctioneer School in 1975, and three years later, Larry was working as an auctioneer and Dan was the Livestock Exchange’s dock foreman while Melvina worked in the office and handled consignors’ sheets.

In 1978, The Recorder reported that an average of 18,000 cattle and 9,000 hogs had been sold at the sale barn the year before. Cattle sales were averaging more than 500 head weekly with 700 to 800 head sold weekly during summer auctions, and hog sales averaged from 400 to 500 head per week.

Wes Harris suffered a stroke in 1984, effectively ending his career at the Livestock Exchange, so the rest of the family kept the business going with Dan Harris taking over and stepping up his auctioneer duties. Wes Harris died in October of 1993 and Melvina followed in May of 2002; Larry, who also spent several years auctioneering at the Livestock Exchange and at personal property auctions after Wes stepped down, died in 2020.

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