Harmon’s Histories: Superior was home to nation’s first hotel-room Bibles

Jim Harmon

Americans love to travel, especially by car. Of course, after a long day on the road, we look for that perfect motel/hotel to provide some needed rest.

That brings us to today’s topic.

Quite likely when you open the nightstand drawer in your hotel room, you’ll find a Bible – and not just any Bible, but one provided by Gideons International.

Their “single mission is sharing the Gospel ... and distributing copies of God’s Word in hotels, hospitals, shelters and other places where people often seek hope.”

That much I already knew. What I didn’t know was how it all started, and more amazingly how Superior, Montana happened to be the place where the first Bibles were placed.

The Gideon organization began in 1898. According to their history, “Two traveling salesmen, John H. Nicholson of Janesville, Wisconsin, and Samuel E. Hill of Beloit, Wisconsin, met at the Central House Hotel in Boscobel, Wisconsin.

Their conversations, over the following year, focused on forming “an association to unite traveling salesmen for evangelism.” Gideon was the name chosen for the group, since Gideon was “a man who was willing to be ready to do God's will at any time, at any place, and in any way that the Holy Spirit leads."

A slightly different origin story was told in 1947 at the dedication of the new three-story Gideons International headquarters building on Chicago’s near north side.

Referring to the 1899 meeting of Nicholson and Hill, a third man was said to have joined the pair. His name was William J. Knights.

In a wire service story carried by newspapers around the country, including the Daily Missoulian, Knights is reported to have “suggested that they ask the Lord to inspire a short, suitable, symbolic name for the group.”

“They knelt in prayer. Soon Knights rose, cited chapters 6 and 7 of Judges, and said: ‘We shall be called Gideons.’”

Meantime, back to 1908. Another Gideon, Archie Bailey, was a regular guest at the Superior Hotel, while working for a company which was assisting the railroad to expand.

“He approached Edna Wilkinson, the hotel’s proprietor, to see if he could place a Bible there at the hotel desk clerk’s station. Edna countered with a bigger proposition: could Archie actually place a Bible in each of the guest rooms? Archie agreed.”

“On November 9, 1908, Archie placed an order to The Gideons for the first 25 hotel Bibles. A single copy of (a Bible) in a hotel or motel room has the potential to touch up to 2,300 lives during its six-year life span.”

Ever since, Bibles have become “standard equipment” in hotel and motel rooms.

In the war years of the 1940s, “pocket-size New Testaments were furnished to servicemen” by the Gideons.

In addition, “white-bound Bibles, bearing the names of the recipients stamped in gold, have been given to members of Congress, the President’s Cabinet, the U.S. Supreme Court, and all governors.”

Currently, there are about 270,000 Gideons and auxiliary members (their wives) “in 200 countries and territories.” Their headquarters building is in Nashville, Tenn.

So there you have it – the story of the Gideons and their connection with a hotel in western Montana.

But there are so many more stories associated with the Superior Hotel – numerous owners, celebrations, a special orchestra, and even a gunfight in the lobby!

We’ll have those stories next week.