Only Three Showed Up

On September 14, 1898, at the Central Hotel of Boscobel, Wisconsin, John Nicholson arrived at 9 P.M., longing for a quiet room to write up his orders. To his disappointment, every room was taken. The clerk suggested he share Room 19 with a stranger, Samuel Hill. Before crawling into bed, Nicholson opened his Bible.

At age twelve, he had promised his dying mother he would read the Bible every night at bedtime. “Read it aloud,” said Hill. “I’m a Christian, too.” Nicholson read John 15 and the two knelt for prayer.

Then they stayed up till 2 A.M. discussing the spiritual needs of Christians on the road. Nicholson and Hill bumped into each other again the following May in Beaver Dam, Wisconsin. They soon announced plans for an association of Christian salesmen and set the first meeting for July 1, 1899. Only three showed up-Nicholson, Hill, and Will J.

Knights. The men nonetheless launched their organization to mobilize Christian commercial travelers for encouragement, evangelism, and service. They groped for a name, but after they had prayed about it Knights said, “We shall be called Gideons.”

The Gideons have since distributed over seven hundred fifty million copies of Scripture in over one hundred seventy nations.