Biographical Sketch of Dudley M. Steele, St. Joseph, Buchanan County, MO >From "History of Buchanan County, Missouri, Published 1881, St. Joseph Steam Printing Company, Printers, Binders, Etc., St. Joseph, Missouri. ********************************************************************** Dudley M. Steele, was born in Jessamine County, Kentucky, February 18, 1821. His mother died when he was quite young, and when sixteen he buried his father. By this time he had a good English and fair class- ical education, and commenced clerking in a wholesale and retail dry goods house in Lexington, Kentucky. His health becoming impaired, and having heard glowing accounts of the rich Platte Purchase, and of Missouri, he in the spring of 1842 started on horseback for the West. At Louisville he took passage for St. Louis and thence to Columbia, Missouri, where he spent several days with a relative, David S. Lamb, and proceeded to what was then Robidoux Landing, now St. Joseph. Captivated by the fertility of the soil, he purchased land five miles east of Savannah, and became a farmer. In August, 1848, he was married to Miss Mary E. Mitchum, formerly of Woodford County, Kentucky. Mrs. Steele died in 1849. In the fall of 1849 he engaged in merchandising in St. Joseph. He subsequently determined to visit California, and in the spring of 1850 started with an ox team and small herd of cattle to cross the plains. The Indians were numerous, and frequently trouble- some, and emigrants therefore traveled in companies sufficiently strong for self-protection. A company of twenty men and ten wagons, princi- pally from Andrew County, was formed, and Mr. Steele was selected as the manager. They traveled with but few adventures. Mr. Steele, de- sirous of visiting Salt Lake, arranged a series of signals by which he could join the train west of that point, and in company with a Mr. McClain, started on horseback for the great Salt Lake Valley, where they spent two weeks. They joined their comrades as arranged, having successfully traversed that wild Indian country a distance of five hundred miles. They arrived at their destination after a four months' journey, and Mr. Steele immediately engaged in the stock business. In the spring of 1852 Mr. Steele formed a co partnership with Messrs. McCord, Nave and Clark, under the firm name of Steele, McCord & Co. This firm afterwards became one of the most prominent as dealers in and raisers of American stock in upper California. In 1856 Mr. Steele was elected by the counties of Colusa and Tehama to represent them in the California State Legislature, receiving the largest Democratic vote ever cast in the district. He continued in the California cattle trade until 1857, during which time he crossed the plains three times in a "prairie schooner", and made nine trips across the Isthmus, some- times by the Panama, and at others by the Nicaragua route. In 1857 he returned to St. Joseph, where the members of the firm of Steele, McCord & Co. entered the wholesale grocery trade, under the firm name of Nave, McCord & Co. In May, 1858 Mr. Steele was married to Miss Eliza May, of Washington County, Kentucky, by whom he had two children, who were left motherless by the death of Mrs. Steele in the spring of 1861. In consequence of the disturbed state of the country during the civil war, Nave, McCord & Co. deemed it advisable to move part of their goods to Omaha, then a small village. Mr. Steele took the management of this consignment, and of the branch house shortly afterwards established there. In the spring of 1862 he again visited California to close up the unsettled business of Steele, McCord & Co., and remained there till September, 1863, when he returned to St. Joseph and again resumed his active interest in the grocery trade, which he continued until 1867. In March, 1868, he was married to Miss Minnie Withers, of Clay County, Missouri. In June of the same year he was elected president of the St. Joseph fire and Marine Insurance Company, to which position he was re-elected in 1869-70. During the same time he was the vice-president and manager of the Merchants' Insurance Company of St. Joseph, and con- ducted the business of both companies in the same office. In the fall of 1868 Mr. Steele formed a partnership in the wholesale grocery busi- ness with Samuel R. Johnson, of Council Bluffs. In 1870 he was elected president of the St. Joseph & Denver City Railroad, and re-elected in 1871. The pressure of business was so great that he on September 13, 1870, resigned the presidency of the St. Joseph Fire and Marine Insur- ance Company, and in November, 1872, after one hundred and fifty miles of the railroad had been built under his management, resigned his position as president. In 1872 he was elected president of the Merchants' Insurance Company of St. Joseph. In 1873 Mr. Steele, W. B. Kemper and others entered the wholesale grocery trade, under the firm name of D. M. Steele & Co. In 1876 he was elected president of the St. Joseph Board of Trade. The same year he was elected a director of the St. Joseph Bridge Company, and re-elected in 1877. Mr. Steele was born and brought up in the Presbyterian faith, and has been a constant supporter of and general attendant upon the services of that denomina- tion. ==================================================================== USGENWEB NOTICE: In keeping with our policy of providing free information on the Internet, data may be used by non-commercial entities, as long as this message remains on all copied material. These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or for presentation by other persons or organizations. 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