Rediscovering home: Superior's connection to Gideon Bibles

Superior is certainly a central character in the drama that led to the first among literally billions of Gideon Bibles found in hotels and other establishments throughout the world. But my hometown is only one of the characters in this drama, according to the files of the Mineral County Museum and Historical Society and an article by Gideon Kevin R. McIntosh.  

Traveling across the bridge to “Old Town” Superior (or at least what I call it), one will find a plaque on what is now a laundry mat that proclaims that the first Gideon Bibles were placed at this spot where the Superior Hotel once stood. That was 1908. 

A fire destroyed the hotel in 1940. The fire threatened the surrounding businesses, including Castles market, the predecessor of Darlow’s at its original location on the north side of the river, and Wally Schneider’s service station. The Mineral Independent reported that William Castle’s store was saved by its “iron roof . . . though it was covered by sparks.” Despite no wind, sparks went as far as up the hill to Hanson’s garage just beyond where Hilltop Lodging is today. 

The plaque always intrigued me while growing up here and reading it on what was then the Schneider Chevrolet dealership, but I never knew the story behind this historic placement. How was it that Superior became the first? I envisioned a story that put Superior as the hero – somehow generating an idea that swept the world. As discovered during previous columns, history is often not so straightforward. No exception here. Superior did, however, present fertile ground for an idea to bear its first fruit. But it was an idea spawned at a Gideon’s leadership meeting a year earlier in 1807.

A longtime Superior family provides one of the lead characters in the story, Edna Wilkinson. She was the proprietor of the Superior Hotel at which Gideon member Archie Bailey stayed frequently. Bailey asked if she would place a Bible at the hotel. She had a better idea – place them in all the rooms. She ordered the first 25 Bibles from the Gideons on Nov. 9, 1908, enclosing a contribution check to cover the cost.

Edna’s daughter-in-law was the elementary music teacher for decades of Superior students, including me. I apologize again, Mrs. (Alice) Wilkinson, for my utter failure to master the flute-o-phone. Alvin Wilkinson, Edna’s son, was longtime county treasurer. Dick Wilkinson and my eldest brother, Guy, loved to play guitars together. Paul Wilkinson continues the family’s service to the community as a caretaker at the cemetery. 

And I learned from brother, Steve, in writing this, that the Wilkinson family at one time owned our family ranch east of town.

The Gideons were formed by traveling businessmen to share Christian fellowship and personal witnessing. The organization was looking for another activity that it could undertake. Trustee W.W. Crissinger, at a 1907 cabinet meeting of the leadership, proposed the Gideons “direct our energies toward furnishing a Bible for each bedroom of the hotels in the country.”

Bailey, an accountant for a contractor for the Northern Pacific Railroad, apparently had gotten word that the July 1908 Gideons convention had approved Bible Placement Ministry when he got off the train at Iron Mountain, traveled across the bridge to the Mullan Trail, checked into the Superior Hotel and made his historic proposal to Edna. Archie Bailey has since faded from the scene, and little is known about him here.

The plaque states that Superior was formerly Iron Mountain. This niggles local historians. Superior originally started along the Mullan Road on the north side of the Clark Fork River. Iron Mountain was on the south side along the Northern Pacific Railroad, where the Town Pump station and the Women-In-Timber store are now. It is now part of Superior. The Northern Pacific was completed across the country in 1883.

Did the flames in 1940 at the hotel (then the Ordean) consume the Bibles? Not all, apparently.

The Gideons have one. The Mineral Independent on July 9, 1942, declares the headline: “Bible Helps To Advertise Town; Guarded Like Very Valuable Book at all Gideon Conventions.” (The blackened foundations of the hotel were still visible in 1942.) 

The Independent reported that prominent Gideon Fred S. Cass visited in search of one of the Bibles. “Lee Mower produced one of the original Bibles and an exchange for a new one was made with Mr. Cass through the assistance of Mr. [A.W.] Williams and the advertising that had appeared in these columns.”  It was first displayed at the Gideon convention of 1936. The Gideons now display their original Bible in a glass case at its international headquarters in Nashville, Tenn.  

The Gideons placed the first plaque on Schneider’s garage in 1973.

Gideon McIntosh headlined his article, “The Hotel Bible Placement That Made History.” 

The Gideon Bible and Superior are forever linked thanks to Edna Wilkinson accepting Archie Bailey’s simple but historic offer. Despite reading the plaque as a child, I never knew the full story until doing this column. 

Please indulge me if I wonder if more could be done here to recognize Edna’s, Archie’s and Superior’s role in this worldwide phenomenon. Much of the rich history here is not only unknown to residents, but also to visitors to our county. People are working to change that and need our collective support.