Gideon moved to Minnesota in 1853, near Lake Minnetonka, and experimented with planting pear, plum, cherry, peach, and apple seeds.

[1] The state farm was located near Gideon's land on Lake Minnetonka, under the jurisdiction of the University of Minnesota.

The station was abandoned in 1889, when he retired, but in 1907 the Minnesota Legislature established a fruit breeding farm between Excelsior and Chaska.

The fruit breeding farm later became the Horticultural Research Center, which is now part of the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum.

The Wealthy apple is genetically related to the Haralson, though it took DNA testing to rediscover this fact after extensive hybridization.