Steadman, John J. (1849-1941)

STEADMAN

Posted By: Karon Velau (email)
Date: 1/3/2024 at 15:07:36

John J. Steadman
(April 4, 1849 – April 19, 1941)

John J. Steadman was born in Ohio, acquired wealth in Iowa, and retired in California. Born in the home of a Methodist minister in Ashtabula County, Ohio, on April 4, 1848, he was scarcely three years old when his father died. Despite this loss of support, he attended the public schools at West Farmington, Ohio, working at odd jobs to pay expenses. Although he was a mere youth when the Civil War began, after some delay, he was accepted as a drummer in the One Hundred and Seventy-first Ohio Volunteer Infantry. The war at an end, he returned to his studies, graduating from Mt. Union College at Alliance, Ohio, in the class of 1869. In 1873 he came to Iowa and became editor and manager of the Osceola Sentinel. Four years later he purchased the Creston Gazette, and in 1884 he purchased an interest in the Council Bluffs Nonpareil. For many years Comrade Steadman was active in the work of the Grand Army of the Republic, with membership in the Abe Lincoln Post No. 29, at Council Bluffs. At the Eighteenth Annual Encampment, held at Ottumwa in 1892, he was elected Department Commander. From 1892 to 1902 he was Clerk of the United States District Court for the Southern District of Iowa. In recent years Comrade Steadman has lived in California, where for ten years he served as a member of the Board of Education for the City of Los Angeles. There he still resides at the age of eighty-six. [included with his photo on page 88, is the text, “John J. Steadman, Commander of the Iowa Department of the Grand Army of the Republic, May 1892 to April 1893”] [Source – Commanders of the Iowa Department of the Grand Army of the Republic, p.88-89]