Have you ever wondered who the Bible Cabin at Upham Woods Outdoor Learning Center is named after? Learn more about this pioneer of Sauk County 4-H (excerpted from the 2002 Sauk County 4-H Celebration program):
A dentist from Lime Ridge devoted his free time to the rural youth of Sauk County and his dedication and leadership still influences us today.
Dr. Walter L. Bible, dentist of Lime Ridge, began the Junior Isaac Walton League at Lime Ridge sometime before 1926. The Isaac Walton league met once a week and conducted business meetings, planned events and socialized.
The group took trips and put on minstrel shows. A four day trip reported in the July 7, 1927 Reedsburg Free Press included stops in Richland Center, Prairie du Chien, a climb in the bluffs along the Mississippi River on the Iowa side, an ice cream party hosted by Albert Sorge in LaCrosse, and a trip into Minnesota to observe the differences in highway marking systems. The group of boys traveled in a truck, camped along the way and it is reported, “They arrived home at ten in the evening of the fourth day – a tired but happy lot of boys.”
Dr. Bible raised Jerseys on a farm he called Purity Farm and was very interested in the breeding and improving of purebred livestock. His two interests combined when he learned of the 4-H program. In an interview with the Capital Times, Dr. Bible credited Ed Dargel, a 4-H leader in Sauk County, with convincing him to join the 4-H program. Dargel explained 4-H work to him and then recited the 4-H pledge. “It was the pledge more than anything else which made me realize the great value in carrying on and developing 4-H work,” Dr. Bible stated.
Minutes from a meeting held on April 21, 1938 reports Dr. Bible began the Lime Ridge 4-H Livestock Club with Everett Brandt as the Senior Leader, Ted Jaquish as the junior leader, Amos Nelson as President, Vic Powell as Vice President, Herb Brandt as Secretary and Treasurer and Raymond Dickman as Club Reporter. The group had nineteen members and met every other week in people’s homes to hear guest speakers, conduct a business meeting and enjoy refreshments and games.
Laverne Hasse remembers joining Dr. Bible’s calf club in 1932 when he was 13 years old. He recalls that Dr. Bible stressed the importance of discipline and taught them to conduct a business meeting. But he also remembers the fun and adventure. The older boys took Laverne and some of the newer members out for a snipe hunt one night. That activity was not one endorsed by Dr. Bible. But he did join them in sleeping in the barns during the fair. Calves often found themselves loose and on the move at night, making sleep risky to impossible. Dr. Bible learned that lesson well one night when a calf in a hurry upturned the cot on which the doctor slept! The risk taking sometimes got more than they bargained for. Laverne also recalls that the boys once rode home from the fair on the top of the semi-trailer hauling their calves. His heart still pounded in the retelling of that foolish prank over 50 years later. Not all the fun was so daring. They made ice cream in Dr. Bible’s state-of-the –art milkhouse and took tours of farms and creameries. To raise money for their activities they had food stands at the outdoor movies and dairy shows and held amateur boxing and wrestling matches. Laverne remembers wearing blisters on his feet from boxing barefoot.
The fund raising and the hair raising all took a backseat to the primary purposes Dr. Bible had for getting involved in 4-H – improving the abilities and opportunities of young people and improving the genetics of their herds. An article in the Wisconsin Agriculturist in June of 1940 focused on Dr. Bible’s commitment to purebred lines and herds of just one breed.
“I’ve always been a stickler for ‘keeping the line pure’. It’s always seemed to be entirely wrong to me to drive by some Holsteins, some Guernseys, some Milking Shorthorns and some whose ancestry wouldn’t stand too close scrutiny,” he told the reporter.
So he set about “filling farm boys’ minds as well as the cavities in their teeth.” He made sure each child in his club achieved in each project. He helped the dairy project members arrange financing for their first calves and guided them in selecting and raising their first purebred cattle. He was proud of the number of Lime Ridge 4-H alumni who went on to farm as adults and who progressed to one breed purebred farms. The 1940 article in the Wisconsin Agriculturist listed these pure bred dairymen as Lime Ridge 4-H alumni. Herbert Brandt with Brown Swiss; Victor Powell with Ayrshires; John and Lyle Shaller with Holsteins; Amos Nelson with Milking Shorthorns and Edwin and LaVerne Hasse with their 100 head of purebred Brown Swiss. Becoming an adult and farming made you a perfect candidate to be drafted by Dr. Bible into the ranks of his senior leaders. His alumni were only too happy to continue and complement the doctor’s work with a new generation of enthusiastic young dairymen.
In 1941, Dr. Bible extended his influence to the swine project when he convinced the Sears Roebuck Company to bring their successful Pig Project to Sauk County and his Lime Ridge members. That year ten Poland China bred gilts were given to ten members of the club to raise and show. The next year each of these members gave a bred gilt from their pig project sow to another member of the Lime Ridge club. The following year each of these recipients gave a bred gilt to a member of another club and so the program grew from club to club across the county. Within the first eight years, over 100 4-H and FFA members received gilts and the following clubs benefited from the program: Lime Ridge 4-H; Valton 4-H; Loganville Friendship 4-H; St. Luke’s 4-H; Diamond Valley 4-H; Lucky M 4-H; Happy Hustlers 4-H; Prairie du Sac, Reedsburg, and Wisconsin Dells FFA. Each year the passing of the pigs was done at a pig roast attended by representatives of Sears Roebuck, Oscar Mayer, the state 4-H office, local 4-H agents and leaders and FFA advisors. Each of these gave a small speech and then last year’s recipients rose and turned their bred gilt over to the boys selected to receive them. The event was well attended and the program very popular.
In addition to his local club work, Dr. Bible served as superintendent of the Sauk County Fair for many years. During that time he worked with the county board and others to raise the funds to improve the buildings at the fairgrounds.
In addition to his work with youth and as an offshoot of his strong desire to improve livestock genetics, in 1947, Dr. Bible organized the Lime Ridge Community Farmers’ Club. The club met each month and featured guest speakers on topics of interest to the group. Many of the speakers were from the University of Wisconsin. These meetings eventually evolved into the Farmers’ Institute held each year in Lime Ridge. He was also involved in his church leading the Sunday school programs for many years.
In gratitude for his over 20 years of 4-H work, Lime Ridge 4-H alumni remodeled his old dentist office into a cozy retirement home for he and his wife, spearheaded the fund raising for Dr. Bible cabin at Upham Woods and continued the Dr. Bible showmanship trophy at the Sauk County Fair. Dr. Walter Bible created a legacy for himself through his work with 4-H youth and the livestock projects he led. His commitment and vision have had an impact on the agriculture and youth programs in Sauk County that continues today.
