The below Gideon related articles were submitted by Karen Hine, who wrote:
"My source is a very old and worn scrapbook which was put together by my Great Grandmother, Edna Eleanor Scott Walters. She lived in Galena, MO and started this scrapbook while a teenager in the mid to late 1890's. All of the articles were cut from newspapers and glued into her book...and sadly many of them have no date or source. It appears that most of them were cut from the Stone County Oracle, as that is a paper she subscribed to all of her life. The articles are not always in order...as many of the pages in this book are loose and have been seperated and mixed up, but from the articles surrounding this one I would say that it was probably written in about 1903 to 1905. Hope this is helpful. This scrapbook has been a wonderful resource for me, taking me back another two generations in my research and providing me with many other leads. I'm hoping that others will also have that same experience with the articles I share."
If you recognize the dates or sources of these items or have other information on them, please contact Karen and this site with the details! Thanks!
UNCLE FRANK GIDEON.
Miss Hala Gideon left Wednesday of last week for Springfield where she has employment in a large dry goods house. She came home to see her father, F.M. Gideon, who was stricken with malarial complications, but is much better now.
F.M. Gideon (Uncle Frank), will be 74 years old in a few days. He camped with the family about the 16th of November, 1836, where Milligan's business house now stands in Springfield. Two small business houses were then in Springfield. Berry had a dry goods house on St. Louis street, and Robt. McElhany sold whisky to emigrants going and coming. Next morning the family crossed James river and settled near where Ozark is now located, and opened up a good farm. Sold it in 1844, and moved to the head of the southwest fork of the Elk Valley, in Taney county.
Then commenced the race of life with F.M. Gideon. He borrowed books and informed himself so as to be able to teach school, and taught his first school at the age of 16, on Bull Creek. Some of his students of that school are living in the country yet. He kept up his studies and teaching school each year until 1854. Then he borrowed books of Prof. Dalrymple and read law, and was admitted to practice law in the circuit court of Greene county in 1862.
In 1861 he raised a company and they served three months in the U.S. service. He was discharged as a 1st Lieut. and holds a commission as such. Re-enlisted the 7th day of March, 1862, in the 14th Missouri State cavalry, and served as hospital steward; was discharged from said regiment in November, 1862, to take a seat as a member of the Missouri legislature, to which he was elected a second term. Was appointed assistant Assessor of the 7th Division of Missouri; was appointed twice under Lincoln's administration, but resigned after Lincoln's assassination, on account of ill health and other causes.
He took the census of half of Christian county in 1870, and the census of part of Stone in 1880. During this period he held several other appointments of minor importance, both Federal and State.
Mr. Gideon has been a confirmed invalid for the past ten years, but
has maintained his mental faculties in good order until the present time.
DEATH OF UNCLE TOM DAVIS
Thomas Davis,Sr., died at the residence of his son-in-law, H.P. Jenkins, three miles northeast of Galena, at 11:30 P.M., Jan. 12, 1903 of dropsy. Uncle Tom, as he was familiarly called by everybody, lived the greater part of his long life in Christian and Stone counties. His exact age is not known, but Uncle Frank Gideon, who probably knew Uncle Tom longer and better than any person now living here, thinks he was about 86 years old.
Early in life he was married to Miss Margaret J. Dorrell, with who he lived until her death in May 1881. They raised a family of twelve children, eight of whom are still living. Mr. Davis homesteaded the Craig farm near Galena, on which he raised a large family. He was a good, peaceable and honored citizen.
He was a Union soldier during the civil war, and was a pensioner at the time of his death. He was buried beside his wife and son in the Gentry cemetery Tuesday afternoon.