Steele, George H.

STEELE, REILLY, TUCK, STEVENS

Posted By: Volunteer Transcribers
Date: 2/14/2003 at 16:05:19

GEORGE H. STEELE 

G. H. Steele, the well-known conductor on No. 15, the fast mail going west on the Chicago & Northwestern Railway, was born in Ogle county, Illinois, on the 19th of January, 1861, but has spent almost his entire life in Clinton, Iowa, having removed to this place in 1865 with his parents, David S. and Jennie (Reilly) Steele. The father, who was a native of Canada, settled in Illinois in 1855, where he followed his trade, that of a carpenter. In 1865 he moved to this city and became associated with Curtis Brothers & Company, proprietors of a sash and blind factory at Clinton. He was a member of the company for a number of years, when the partnership was dissolved. He was then employed in the car shops of the Chicago & Northwestern Railway Company for about eight years. He enlisted in 1865, but as the war ended soon afterward his company was never called into service. His death occurred in Clinton in 1886, and his wife, who was a native of New York, died at the same place in 1874. They were the parents of four children, namely: David, now a prominent resident of Concordia, Kansas, served through the war of the Rebellion, first as a drummer boy and later in the ranks. He has taken a very active part in public affairs and has represented his district in the Kansas legislature several terms. G. H., our subject, is the next of the family. Jennie is the wife of Charles Tuck, of Ashton, Illinois. John L. is a contractor and builder of Santa Maria, California.

Mr. Steele, of this review, acquired his education in the public schools of Clinton. He worked on a farm from the time he was fourteen years of age until 1881, when he entered the service of the Chicago & Northwestern Railway as a brakeman, and was employed in that capacity until 1886, at which time he was promoted to conductor on the eastern division. He has been running an extra passenger train for the past two years, together with the west bound fast mail, and is considered one of the most trustworthy conductors on the road.

On the 24th of May, 1884, Mr. Steele led to the marriage altar Miss Hattie Stevens, a native of Tioga county, Pennsylvania, and a daughter of Daniel Stevens, a lumberman, who on coming west located in Wisconsin, where he made his home for some years, and lived in Clinton, Iowa, from 1882 to 1898, but is now a resident of Missouri. Unto our subject and his wife have been born three children, namely: George, Harold and Winifred. In his social relations Mr. Steele is a member of the Knights of the Maccabees and the Order of Railway Conductors, and he is highly respected and esteemed by all who know him. Mr. Steele built a fine home at 724 Stockton street in 1888, being the third to build in the block now nearly built up.
Source: The 1901 Biographical Record of Clinton Co., Iowa, Illustrated published: Chicago : S. J. Clarke Pub. Co., 1901.