~Isham G. Gideon~

Isham G. Gideon, fourth child of James Isham Gideon and Martha "Patty" Mills, was born 15 Oct 1795 in Wilkes Co, NC and died in 1860; buried on his farm in Wright Co, MO.; he married in 1820/1821 Nancy Miller, born about 1800. About 1810 Isham moved to Hawkins Co, TN with his parents. Soon thereafter he is listed in the 17th Rgt of Ky (The Cornstalk Militia) created to protect the frontier from Indians. The 1830 census shows him living in Grainger Co, TN with his wife, 2 sons and 2 daughters under 10. He purchased land in 1840 in Laurel Co, KY which he sold in 1848 preparing to move on west.

In 1852 Isham with his 2 sons, 2 daughters and their families migrated to Taney Co, MO where his brother, William, had moved in 1836. They came in a wagon train drawn by oxen, taking six weeks to make the trip of some 600 miles. In the spring of 1853 Isham and his sons and daughters' families took up 600 acres each south of Hartville in Wright Co some 60 miles NE of Ozark. All their farms joined and to this day is known as "Gideon Valley". They helped each other clear the land, build log houses, rail fences and to organize a school for their children, a beginning of a prosperous community.

When the war broke out in 1861, the bushwackers and outlaws descended upon the defenseless families; stealing livestock, crops and threatening women and children, so the remaining families went to franklin Co, near St. Louis for the duration. When they returned they found their buildings and fences destroyed and they had to begin all over again.


next Gideon biography:
return to Gideon homepage: