My Genealogy Hound

Gillead J. B. Gideon, farmer and deputy sheriff of Whitley Township, was born in what is now Bartow County, Ga., in 1836, and is a son of Dr. Berry W. and Lillie (Park) Gideon, natives of Hall and Jackson Counties, Ga., respectively. They were married in Jackson County and died in their native State, where they had passed their lives. The father’s death occurred in February, 1884, when he was eighty-two, and the mother died the following August aged seventy-two. He was a successful physician, and held a license which was given by the Legislature. During the Indian troubles in Georgia he commanded a company of volunteers. His father was a native of England. Our subject is the fourth child in a family composed of two sons and nine daughters. During his youth he received a common-school education while under the paternal roof. During the Civil War he served almost the entire time in Company K, First Georgia Infantry, State troops, known as “Joe Brown’s Pets,” guarding the bridges and railroads until the army entered Georgia, when he joined the regular service. He was discharged at Atlanta shortly before the close of the war, whereupon he returned home. In 1858 he married Margaret, daughter of William Mobley, who until 1870 lived in Georgia, and is now a resident of Johnson County, Ark. Of Mr. Gideon’s ten children one son is in Tennessee and the remainder in Arkansas. Since 1870, with the exception of one year, Mr. Gideon has been a resident of Crawford County. In the meantime he spent a short time in both Franklin County and New Mexico, but finally located permanently upon his present farm in 1877. From a small piece of ground composed of forty acres, upon which he erected a log cabin sixteen feet square, he has been increasing his landed possessions until he now has 100 acres of cleared land, and is the owner of 240 acres of land in all in different tracts. He has given his children a good education, and for two years has been sheriff of the county. He has always been a Democrat, and his first presidential vote was cast for Breckinridge in 1880.