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Weekly Column

Each week a small segment of Vernon County history is published in the county papers.


For the week of 11/1/2020
by Carol Krogan, assistant curator

Hilda and Orbec Sherry were the second owners of the Sherry Butt House in Viroqua, 795 N. Main St., now owned and operated by the Vernon County Historical Society. To continue our celebration of the home’s 150th birthday in 2020, this week we feature Hilda’s biography.

Hilda Loverud was born December 7, 1893 in Vernon County to Iver K. and Ida (Olson) Loverud. She was raised on a farm and graduated from St. Olaf College where she earned a four-year degree in English in just three years.

She taught in schools for the blind in Bathgate, ND and Janesville, WI. (Cyrus and Margaret Butt, the original owners of the house, had a daughter Esther who also taught at the Janesville School for the Blind.) Later Hilda taught at Concordia College in Moorhead, MN where regular sports for women did not begin until she organized the first women's physical education department in the fall of 1920! Hilda was the first women’s basketball coach and led them to a championship in the very first year!

She returned to Vernon County and married Orbec D. Sherry on September 2, 1922. They farmed on Belgium Ridge and raised their two children there, Orbec Jr., born in 1923 and Mary, born in 1926. In 1948 they sold their home farm and purchased the former home of the Cyrus and Margaret Butt family.

Hilda was very active in the community, including Viroqua’s centennial in 1946 when she portrayed activist Lucy Stone. She organized children and teenagers into costumed dancing groups and assisted teachers in the country schools with training students for declamation contests. She was an active member of Good Shepherd Lutheran Church in Viroqua, where she taught a women’s Sunday School class for many years.

She was also a member of the Vernon County Fair Board for 37 years, held the position of 4-H fair superintendent for 31 years and was the first woman to receive the Wisconsin Association of Fairs award for outstanding service. She served on the board for the American Red Cross for several decades and on the Viroqua Library Board for 16 years.

Hilda was well-known for her one act plays and her humorous and religious readings which were presented throughout the county. Hilda was also the co-director and cast member of a play called “Pioneer Ladies Aid” which was performed in many churches throughout the Midwest. Hilda passed away on October 6, 1986.


Hilda Sherry, 1946

Hilda Sherry portrays suffragist and activist Lucy Stone at the 1946 Viroqua Centennial.


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For the week of 11/8/2020
by Carol Krogan, assistant curator

This week we continue with biographies on the people who lived in the Sherry Butt House, 795 N. Main Street, Viroqua. This home, which had just two private owners, was built in 1870 and is celebrating its 150th this year. It is currently operated by the Vernon County Historical Society as a historic site for tours (although it is now closed for the winter). Orbec and his wife Hilda Sherry were the second owners of the home.

Orbec D. Sherry was born to Tobias and Johanna (Stevlingson) Sherry on September 26, 1896, in a log house three miles southwest of Viroqua, one of 11 children. Working on the farm was very important, so Orbec didn’t attend school as often as his brother Reuben, who was not as strong as he. Due to illness, he missed several weeks of school during the winters of 1909 and 1910. Reuben attended high school, but Orbec had to remain at home to work the farm when his father went to visit his parents in Norway. He did not attend high school.

In September, 1917, Orbec enlisted in the U.S. Army and was sent to Jackson Barracks, New Orleans, LA. He survived the flu epidemic while stationed there. He was discharged in May of 1919, returned home and worked on the family farm. In 1922 he married Hilda Loverud, who was raised near Viroqua. They bought the home farm and had two children, Orbec Jr., born in 1923 and Mary, born in 1926.

On this farm Orbec had a mixed dairy herd, and began to acquire his Brown Swiss herd in 1924. His first cow set a record for her class. Another cow, Butternut Jane, was purchased the same year. In 1928 she gave birth to Jane of Vernon. Most Brown Swiss alive today can be traced back to her. This began the fascinating and important career for Orbec Sherry in the cattle breeding business.

As a four-year old in 1932, Jane of Vernon held a world record producing 23,569 pounds of milk and 1,075 pounds of butterfat in one year. Orbec began to show her over the entire country and developed markets all around the U.S. and even in South America for his excellent cattle.

Jane won the Grand Championship at Waterloo for the next four years. In 1936 she won Grand Champion in the National Dairy Show in Dallas. Jane was sold that year to a farm in Connecticut where she died in 1945.

In 1945 and 1946 Orbec was asked by the United Nations to buy cattle for the U.N. Rehabilitation program, and later he exported cattle to Europe and Central America.

In 1948 the Sherrys sold their home farm and purchased the former home of the Cyrus and Margaret Butt family in Viroqua. It was comprised of 57 acres. The previous year they had purchased 49 adjoining acres to the northeast. In 1952 he purchased a farm two miles south of Viroqua on either side of Hwy 14 to keep cattle and saddle horses that he bought and sold.

Orbec won many awards for his work in the Brown Swiss breeding business including receiving posthumously the Brown Swiss Historical Society’s Master Breeder award in 2015.

Orbec was a member of both the Jacobson-Olson American Legion Post and the Running-Johnson-Ray VFW Post as well as the Brown Swiss Breeders Association, Viroqua Area Chamber of Commerce, Viroqua Eagles and Good Shepherd Lutheran Church. He passed away on July 5, 1988 at the age of 91.


Orbec Sherry
Orbec D. Sherry, local farmer and cattleman.