Nicholas County, West Virginia    Biography of Hugh H. STEELE

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Submitted by Valerie Crook, <vfcrook@trellis.net>, March 1999
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The History of West Virginia, Old and New
Published 1923, The American Historical Society, Inc., 
Chicago and New York, Volume III, pg. 34-35

HUGH H. STEELE is an influential figure in connection with
the industrial and general business activities of the thriv-
ing little City of Richwood, Nicholas County, where he is
president of the Fulton Manufacturing Company, manu-
facturers of clothespins and butter dishes.

Mr. Steele claims the old Keystone State of the Union as
the place of his nativity, his birth having occurred at Ham-
mond, Tioga County, Pennsylvania, on the 27th of June,
1879. He is a son of Frank and Emmer (Hammond) Steele,
both likewise natives of Pennsylvania, where the former was
born at Mountain Lake, Bradford County, January 22,
1855, and the latter was born March 10, 1855, at Ham-
mond. The Hammond family has been one of prominence
in Pennsylvania since the day of William Penn, and in its
honor the native place of the subject of this sketch was
named. Frank Steele became successfully engaged in the
lumber business at Hammond, Pennsylvania, and developed
a prosperous enterprise also as a carpenter and builder. He
and his wife still reside at that place, both being members
of the Baptist Church, and he is a republican in polities.

Of their five children two died in early childhood. Of
the three surviving children Hugh H., of this review, is the
eldest; Robert is a successful physician and surgeon engaged
in practice in the City of Chicago; and Marguerite, who
holds a position in one of the Government offices in the
City of Washington, has supplemented her high school edu-
cation by attending Georgetown University.

After profiting by the advantages of the public schools
of his native state Hugh H. Steele completed a course In
business college, and at the age of sixteen years he initi-
ated his connection with railroad work, with which he con-
tinued to be identified ten years. He then took a position
with the Locke Insulator Company at Victor, New York,
and later he held a responsible position in the general of-
fices of the Dodge Clothespin Company at Codersport, Penn-
sylvania, where he remained thus engaged until 1912. He
then came to Richwood, West Virginia, and took a minor
office position with the Fulton Manufacturing Company,
with which he won advancement to the office of secretary
and of which he has been the president since June 2.2, 1921.
He has played an influential part in the upbuilding of the
substantial business of this corporation, and is one of the
vital and progressive citizens and business men of Rich-
wood. His political allegiance is given to the republican
party, he has received the thirty-second degree in the Scott-
ish Rite of the Masonic fraternity, and he and his wife are
zealous members of the Presbyterian Church at Richwood,
in which he is serving as a deacon.

On the 16th of January, 1906, was solemnized the mar-
riage of Mr. Steele and Miss Breunle, who likewise was
born and reared in Pennsylvania, and the one child of this
union is a daughter, Eileen C., who was born December 5,
1907, and who is, in 1922, a student in the Richwood High
School.