Maxwell Williams moved to Gideon from Nashville, Tennessee where he worked for an agricultural company. Mr. Anderson asked Mr. Williams to set up a farm land management business. The younger Mr. Anderson (Karl Anderson) had an idea for the box industry.
Clarkton was the oldest town in Dunklin County. The present site of Gideon was just forests and swampland with a plank road which was later changed to a pole road. When Anderson arrived Gideon was all forests and swamps. W.P. Anderson created Gideon in the 1900's when he was 37. He put in a sawmill. He had a brother-in-law named Mr. Gideon. They decided to name the town Gideon. Mr. Gideon decided to go back to Ohio and W. P. Anderson owned all of Gideon when Mr. Gideon left.
New Madrid was founded 100 years before anything was done to Gideon. The township was Anderson Township. People started building houses and draining the land. The Little River Drainage district made possible the building of the town of Gideon. Without the ditches, no town would have been built. Most timber towns sold out and and left, but while they were chopping the timber, they built stores, apartments and schools.
In 1974, Mr. Carl Anderson started talking about selling the company. Because he was 80 years old and had no one to pass it down to, Mr. Anderson sold out to a Mr. Harris in 1975. He sold everything but the Anderson Farms.
Mr. Harris sold out a few years later. Mr. Harris turned the company over to his sons-in-law. About three years later the town decreased in population and businesses. They thought that Gideon would become a "ghost town".
In the last 20 years houses have been built, businesses have opened and the population has grown.