Information Sheet

 

 

R         Gideon‑Anderson Lumber & Mercantile Company.

290                  Papers, 1901‑1938 (bulk, 1901-1919).

                                    Thirty-seven folders.

 

MICROFILM

 

 

 

This collection consists of correspondence and business papers of the Gideon-Anderson Lum­ber & Mercantile Company concerning the lumber trade in southeastern Mis­souri and north­east­ern Arkansas.  Based in Gideon, Missouri, the company operated primarily in Dunklin, New Ma­drid, and Pemiscot counties in Missouri.  The collection includes papers from two subsidiary op­era­tions, the Gideon Cooperage Company and the Gideon & North Island Rail­road Company.

 

The Gideon‑Anderson Lumber & Mercantile Company was organized at Decatur, Indiana.  Its of­ficers were William P. Anderson, president, M. S. Anderson, vice‑president, Charles F. Meen­te­meyer, secretary, and M. V. Mumma, treasurer.  Frank E. Gideon of McGill, Ohio, was also a founder.  The company moved to New Madrid County, Missouri, around 1900, where it lo­cated along the line of the St. Louis & Gulf Railroad and began cutting the virgin forest of the swamps of southeastern Missouri.  The community which grew up around the lumber camp was named after Frank E. Gideon.  It was platted in 1903.  The company specialized in red oak lum­ber, but also cut considerable quantities of other hardwoods, particularly hickory and ash.  The mill began with a ca­pacity of 10,000 board feet per day, which was soon in­creased.  Planing, handle and stave mills were added to the com­plex, which by the eve of World War I had an enormous daily capacity.

 

Branches of the Houck and Frisco railroad lines carried the products of the mills to market.  The Gideon-Anderson Company organized the Gideon & North Island Railroad af­ter 1903, giv­ing it connections with major railways in all directions.  The focus of operations shifted gradually southward as logging progressed.  In later years the company owned and op­erated mills in Mal­den, Missouri, and Jacksonport, Arkansas.  The company held extensive land holdings in Dunklin, New Madrid and Pemiscot counties, much of which was reclaimed for agriculture after the forest was cleared and the swamps were drained.  The community around Gideon grew rap­idly.  The mer­can­tile opera­tions also grew, particularly in the housing rental and real estate mar­kets.  The land hold­ings became the basis for a successor company, Anderson Farms of Gideon.

 

The Gideon‑Anderson papers held by the New Madrid Museum are only a small por­tion of what must have been a voluminous collection.  The papers came to the museum via Charles Cluck of Gideon, a former employee of Gideon-Anderson, who secured the inactive files of the firm for their philatelic content.  The papers have been organized into three sec­tions: general cor­respon­dence, miscellaneous legal and business papers, and freight bills. Nearly all of the material is dated from 1901 to 1919, with only a few items dated from 1920 to 1938.  Although the rec­ords are not complete, they touch on most facets of the company’s op­erations, and are useful for research on the lumber industry in southeastern Missouri.

 

The correspondence consists of letters to the company from timber dealers, lumber men, mill operators, equipment salesmen and job ap­plicants.  There is more incoming than outgoing mail, but there are carbons of some of the replies by company officers William P. Anderson and Char­les F. Meentemeyer.  Both men, and Anderson in particular, were shrewd businessmen who paid close attention to the small details of the lumber trade. Their corre­spondence includes com­ments on the quality of timber, mill machinery, freight tariffs, and the general state of the lumber trade.  Letters from Frank E. Gideon in Ohio and Fred Bimel in Indiana indicate that the com­pany maintained trade connections in those areas.  In Missouri, the company cut timber on its own lands, leased properties, and contracted for the entire pro­duction of smaller mills such as the Senath Manufac­turing Company of Senath, Missouri.  The company also sold its own blank stock to stave mills, cooperages, and handle factories. The papers indicate trade connections with firms in Caruthers­ville, Kennett, New Madrid, Parma, Pascola, Senath and Wardell in Missouri, and in Blissville, Blytheville, Paragould, and Piggott in Arkansas.

 

The legal and business papers evidence other aspects of the lumber company’s busi­ness.  In­cluded are farm and housing rental accounts, balance sheets for the J. M. Baird and Gideon Coo­perage companies, lists of charitable contributions for injured or disabled workers, garnish­ment no­tices served on employees, and a petition to establish a new utility company at Gideon in 1938.  The miscellaneous papers also contain application blanks for membership in the House of HOO‑HOO, a lumberman’s fraternal organization, and the correspondence be­tween Robert B. Meentemeyer and the Order of Railroad Telegraphers. The exchange con­cerned Meentemeyer’s attempt to join the telegraphers and the complications which ensued when his weight did not meet the minimum standard set by the Order.  Advertising materials also in this section include descrip­tions and illustrations of sawmill equipment and parts, lubri­cants, wire fence, rat poisons, and life insurance.

 

The last section of the collection contains freight bills and bills of lading, 1903‑1916. Most are for shipments on the Frisco system.  There are also bills for movements on the St. Louis, Iron Mountain & Southern Railway, and the Gideon & North Island Railroad.

 

See also Western Historical Manuscript Collection-Rolla collection number R449.

 

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