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Paper salesman John “Nick” Nicholson didn’t reach his hotel until 9 o’clock that night of September 14, 1898. Another hard day of train rides, carriage rides, and appointments left him wanting only a quiet room in which to write up his orders.

But the lobby of the Central Hotel in Boscobel, Wisconsin, bulged with people. In Nicholson’s words, the hotel was “crowded with drummers and ‘hangabouts’ playing cards, shaking dice, smoking, laughing, cursing, yelling, and singing with clinking of glasses and the tinkle of the mechanical organ.”

At the front desk, Nicholson’s fears were confirmed: Every room was filled.

The hotel landlord wanted to help Nicholson, a regular customer, so he proposed a last-ditch solution. “We have a man with us tonight by the name of Sam Hill,” he said, “a good clean fellow. There’s a spare bed in his room, and if you’re both willing to share, you could have it.” The landlord took Nicholson across the lobby to meet Hill, who was writing up his orders.

The fellow salesman agreed to the arrangement.

In Room 19 later that evening, Hill rolled over to go to sleep. “Excuse me if I keep this light on a little while longer,” Nicholson said. “I always make it a practice to read the Word of God and speak to him before I retire.”

“Read it aloud,” Hill told him. “I’m a Christian, too.”

Nicholson read John 15, and the two prayed together. Then he and Hill started talking about the need for Christian traveling salesmen to know about each other. By 2 A.M. they had determined they should start an association.

That morning, the two left the Central Hotel and soon forgot about the plan.

The following May, however, Nick Nicholson met Sam Hill on a street in Beaver Dam, Wisconsin. Chagrined over their previous lack of action, they set a date for the association’s first meeting and promised to invite other Christian salesmen to join them.

On July 1, 1899, only one other person showed up at the Janesville YMCA.

Nicholson, Hill, and the newcomer, William Knights, didn’t let the small turnout discourage them. They quickly appointed themselves president, vice-president, and secretary-treasurer. They also adopted the name Gideons, after the fiery Old Testament leader.

The fledgling group of Christian “commercial men” met again to encourage each other and spur each other to witness for Christ. At this meeting, in which the Gideons’ emblem was conceived, the group expanded to twelve charter members, all from Wisconsin.

The following year, 1900, saw the first local chapter (called a “camp”), the first edition of The Gideon Quarterly, and the first national convention. The convention attracted only thirty-seven of the group’s now-six-hundred members, but it passed this significant resolution: “That every hotel, which Gideons patronize, furnish a Holy Bible for the benefit of its patrons.”

The turn of the century also saw pitched battles arise: Was it proper for “a traveling man” to preach in churches, as many Gidieons were being asked to do? Should all Gideons be expected to give their testimony in public, or should timid souls, who were dropping out by the dozens, be exempted? As later president Samuel Fulton explained, “Our organization is difficult to handle. There is a variety of minds, a variety of denominations, and such a wide variety of views with reference to incidental things.… Positions taken did not always please everybody.… ”

By 1903, the Gideons added a salaried national secretary and a headquarters in Chicago.

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