Based on the title of this Footnote, what would you expect it to be about? Is it about making New Year’s Resolutions? Is it a challenge to explore new approaches to teaching this year? Is it a challenge to engage in more professional development this year? Is it a challenge to spend more time with family and friends this year? Or is it something else?
If you teach in a school that has been around for a while it is possible that you have the book “I Dare You” in the school library or in the agriculture classroom.
Figure 1. I Dare You by William H. Danforth
Have you and/or your students read it? If not, I Dare You to read it. In this Footnote we are going to examine this book and learn about the author and his message.
If you don’t have this book you can open it up and download it for free from the HathiTrust (https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uva.x000400225&seq=5). You might want to do that now so you can refer to it as you read this Footnote.
William H. Danforth
The author of I Dare You is William H. Danforth. He was born in 1870 in southeast Missouri near the town of Charleston. While growing up he helped his father in their general store in Charleston. The area was swampy and he was a “sickly farm boy” (Hubbard, n.d., p. 1).
In school one of his teachers, George Warren Krall, looked directly at him and said “I dare you to be the healthiest boy in the class.” Tired of being so sickly, he accepted the dare and worked at gaining his health which he did. This health lasted a lifetime (Danforth, 1954, p. 1).
Danforth earned degrees from the Washington University Manual Training School and from Washington University in St. Louis. His first job was in the brick business. But two of his friends and fellow church goers (George Robinson and William Andrews) recruited Danforth to join them in producing horse and mule feed. At that point in time, horses and mules were fed corn or oats (in addition to hay). The problem was that bad corn caused colic resulting in the death of thousands of horses and oats were expensive. In 1894 the Robinson-Danforth Commission Company was formed to produce feed for mules and horses. Danforth was 24 years old.
With a startup fund of $12,000 the company began mixing their feed with shovels on the floor of a back room in the feed store. Initially the slogan of the company was “Cheaper than oats and safer than corn.” Danforth was the bookkeeper and a salesperson.
In 1896 Danforth became the president of the company. Shortly thereafter a tornado hit St. Louis and destroyed the factory. Undeterred, Danforth went to the bank and borrowed $25,000 to rebuild the factory.
In addition to producing feed for animals, Danforth came up with the idea of producing a whole wheat cereal for humans. In 1898 the cereal was being sold to grocery stores in the St. Louis area. Initially the word Purina was used on the label of the cereal because of the new company slogan” Where purity is paramount.”
In 1902 the company changed its name to Ralston Purina in order to get the endorsement of Webster Edgerly, a famous health advocate. Edgerly had founded a health movement known as Ralstonism with Ralston being an acronym for Regime, Activity, Light, Strength, Temperation, Oxygen, and Nature. The wheat cereal was then labelled Ralston Wheat Cereal.
During the first World War Danforth served in the Third Division of the American Expeditionary Forces in France. He observed that a meal time the word ‘chow” seemed to excite the soldiers. So when he returned to America the word “chow” was added to all livestock and poultry foods manufactured by Ralston Purina. Danforth also created the company’s popular checkerboard logo.
The Ralston Purina company continued to grow over the next several decades. Danforth’s Ralston Purina Company established mills in St. Louis and 32 other cities in the U.S. and Canada. On Christmas eve in 1955 William H. Danforth died of a heart attack at the age of 85.
Figure 2. William H. Danforth
William H. Danforth and the America Youth Foundation
In 1925 Danforth and several colleagues established the American Youth Foundation (AYF). The American Youth Foundation dares people to discover and celebrate the very best in themselves and others, inspires them to explore diverse perspectives and complex challenges, and emboldens them to live courageously, engaging their full capacity.
The founders of the AYF acquired property in Stony Lake, Michigan and created a camp known as Camp Miniwanca. At the same time another property, known as Merrowvista in New Hampshire, was donated to the American Youth Foundation. Camping programs for young people were established at the two camps.
Every year since 1925 a National Leadership Conference is held at Camp Miniwanca. The National Leadership Conference creates confident leaders equipped to make a positive impact on our ever-changing world. This eight-day camp brings together high school and college students from diverse backgrounds, providing them with the opportunity to develop, practice and implement leadership skills that will play an essential role throughout the rest of their lives.
In 1927 Danforth established the Danforth Foundation. The foundation’s primary goal was to help young people to become leaders and develop a “four square” life. The Foundation offered scholarships to the summer camps. During the summers Danforth spent considerable time at the camps interacting with the campers.
The I Dare You! Leadership Award was created in 1941and made available to every secondary school and 4-H program in the U.S. and Canada. All recipients of the award get a certificate and a copy of “I Dare You!”
Danforth and the FFA
In 1937 the FFA Board went on record as favoring the Danforth Camp and granting permission for any national FFA officer to attend. Joe Black and Stanley Tschantz were indicated as most likely to attend.
At the 14th National FFA convention in 1941 Danforth received the honorary American Farmer degree. He also made a presentation at the convention about the need for four-square living. One of the national officers (Henrie Miller) thanked Mr. Danforth for the National Officer Scholarships which allowed the national officers to attend the Leadership Camp
At the FFA Board Meeting in May of1942 it was moved by Giacomini that the FFA go on record as favoring all national officers who can making application for the 1942 American Youth Foundation Camp; motion was duly seconded and carried.
Numerous FFA members have attended the National Leadership Camp. A search of Newspapers.com for “American Youth Foundation Camp” + “FFA” yielded over 400 hits. Undoubtedly many other FFA members have attended the camp but that was not reported in the local newspapers. At times the national FFA officers mentioned the camp in their retiring report.
Since the Friday Footnotes have been focused on Missouri recently, a representative newspaper article about Missourians attending the camp is shown in Figure 3.
Figure 3. From the Jameson (MO) Gem, August 8, 1940.
For years the FFA chapter at Charleston High School in Missouri was named the Danforth FFA chapter in honor of William H. Danforth (See Figure 4). Today the name of the chapter is Charleston-Danforth. In 1952 the President elect of that chapter, Everett Bone, received a scholarship to attend the American Youth Foundation Camp.
Figure 4. The photo of the Danforth FFA Chapter officers came from the 1951 Charleston, Missouri High School yearbook.
The 1969 FFA Foundation Sponsoring Committee was chaired by Donald Danforth, Jr. He was the grandson of William H. Danforth.
The Book “I DARE YOU”
After achieving a considerable amount of success, Danforth decided to write a book challenging others to excel in 1930. It was privately printed and at first was distributed to friends and colleagues. Danforth believed everyone has within themselves the capacity to live a courageous, adventurous, and inspired life if they accept the dare to live to their fullest. His challenge to the readers of “I Dare You!” now in its 40th printing, is to be their “own selves, at their very best, all the time.”
Young people who received scholarships to attend the America Youth Foundation camp received copies of the book. It is interesting to note the front page of the book. The reader of the book was encouraged to pass it on to others to read. See Figure 5. I am not sure how copies of the book ended up in agricultural classrooms across the country, but they did.
Figure 5. Images from the front of the book.
Danforth believed that a person has not one, but four lives to live, and to illustrate he would draw a familiar ‘checkerboard’ on a piece of paper. On the left side of the checker he would write ‘Physical’; at the top he would write ‘Mental’; on the right-hand side he would write ‘Social’; and at the base of the checker he would write ‘Religious.’
In the introductory pages of the book he lays out a dare. Then he writes you can be bigger than you are. Are you one of the precious few? (who dare to dare). I dare you to adventure. I dare you to do things.
Early in the book he emphasizes the importance of health. Chapters in the book include I dare you to be strong. I dare you to think creatively. I dare you to develop a magnetic personality. I dare you to build character. I dare you to share. Launch out into the deep. I dare and share
Figure 6. The Danforth I Dare You coin. Image from David Laatsch.
Concluding Remarks
William H Danforth was a great supporter of young people, especially 4-H and FFA members. His I Dare You book is a classic. Your agricultural and extension education schooling is not complete until you read this book. I would encourage, perhaps even dare you, to read it. It will take only a couple of hours. Copies can be downloaded free from https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Search/Home?adv=1&setft=true&ft=ft&lookfor%5B%5D=%22I+dare+you%22&type%5B%5D=title. Copies can also be ordered from Amazon as a hardcover, paperback, Kindle, or Audiobook. Used copies can be ordered from Abebooks at prices ranging from $4.27 to $273.95.
If you would like to learn more about nominating a student for the National Leadership Award information can be found at https://ayf.com/programs/national-leadership-award/.
References
Danforth, William H. (1954, 16th edition). I Dare You.
Hubbard, M. Karen. N.D. William H. Danforth Ralston Purina, Danforth Foundation. Center for Entrepreneurship and Economic Education at the University of Missouri–St. Louis. https://www.lindenwood.edu/files/resources/danforth-student.pdf
Shurtleff, William & Akiko, Auyagi (2020). History of Ralston Purina Co. and the Work of William H. and Donald E. Danforth. Soyinfo Center.