Dudley M. Steele

After the American Revolution, David Steele moved west to what was to become Kentucky with his four sons: David, Thomas, William, and Samuel Campbell Steele. Samuel became a prominent farmer in Jessamine County, near Nicholasville. He operated a flour mill, a saw mill, and a distillery. On October 12, 1812, he was married to Elizabeth Mitchum, daughter of Dudley Mitchum of Woodford County, Kentucky. Samuel and Elizabeth had nine children, of whom Dudley Mitchum Steele was born February 18, 1821. Dudley was only seven when his father died and fifteen when he lost his mother. The oldest brother, William, then took care of the family and Dudley completed his education. His first business experience was as clerk in the wholesale and retail dry goods firm of a cousin, Dudley M. Craig, one of the leading merchants of Lexington, Kentucky.

In 1842, at the age of twenty-one, Dudley was attracted by the glowing accounts of the richness of the soil in the newly opened 'Platte Purchase' in Missouri. Against the advice of his friends, he started off on horseback for the West. At Louisville he embarked on the river steamboat, changed boats at St. Louis, and continued on to Robidoux Landing, arriving in June 1842. He purchased land in Andrew County between Savannah and Rochester and became a farmer. He was appointed justice of the peace by the County Court for one term.

In 1848 he was married to his cousin, Miss Mary E. Mitchum, daughter of a well-known farmer of Woodford County, Kentucky. She died in 1849 leaving a baby daughter. Mr. Steele then returned to St. Joseph and spent a short time as a merchant.

In the spring of 1850 he decided to visit California, so in company with twenty men of Andrew County a ten-wagon train was organized, with Steele's ox-drawn wagon and a small herd of cattle. The train traveled by South Pass and Fort Hall, with Steele as captain. He left the train on horseback to visit Salt Lake City, rejoining the party on the other side, and reaching California after a trip of four months. He found that cattle raising in California could be profitable, so he formed a partnership with James McCord raising and dealing in stock in northern California. In 1856 Steele was elected to the California legislature. During these years he crossed the plains three times with wagon trains and made nine trips across the Isthmus -some by Panama, others by Nicaragua.

In 1857 Dudley Steele returned to St. Joseph and entered the wholesale grocery trade as a member of the firm of Nave, McCord & Company. In 1858 he married, for the second time, Miss Eliza May Smith of Washington County, Kentucky. They had two children, but Mrs. Steele died in 1861. Conditions in St. Joseph were so disturbed during the Civil War that Nave, McCord & Company moved its stock of goods to Omaha, then a small village. A branch of the business was established there with Mr. Steele in charge.

In 1862-1863 Steele was back in California to close up the cattle business. On his return, he was again with Nave, McCord & Company until 1867. In 1868 he married, for the third time, Miss Minnie Withers, daughter of Abijah Withers of Clay County, Missouri. He was elected president of the St. Joseph Fire and Marine Insurance Company, as well as vice-president and manager of the Merchants Insurance Company.

In 1868 he formed a partnership to carry on a wholesale grocery business, Steele and Johnson. In 1870 he was elected president of the St. Joseph & Denver City Railroad (later the “Grand Island) and by 1872 had seen the building of one hundred and fifty miles of railroad. In 1872 he was elected president of the Merchants Insurance Company and in 1873 he joined with W. B. Kemper and others to enter the wholesale grocery trade as D. M. Steele & Company. In 1876 he was elected president of the St. Joseph Board of Trade and a director of the St. Joseph Bridge Company.

The wholesale grocery firm of D. M. Steele & Company was reorganized in 1884 as Steele & Walker, continuing on until 1893. At that time it returned to its former name until Dudley M. Steele died on March 10, 1896. At that time the remaining business was turned over to Nave, McCord & Company.

Mr. Steele's third wife had died in 1894, leaving three children, a son and two daughters. Miss Susan Steele was married to Armstrong Beattie Weakley and Miss Edna Steele was married to Dr. Barton Pitts who came to St. Joseph from Accomack County, Virginia. When Dudley M. Steele died the press reported, 'St. Joseph loses a good citizen and the business world a man who for nearly half a century was one of the prominent leaders of the West.

BROTHERS and SISTERS

After Dudley M. Steele left Kentucky in 1842, his brother Samuel Steele went to the California goldfields in 1849. He died a year later, leaving a diary and letters describing his Western experiences. Another brother, John Steele, and a widowed sister, Susan Steele Hallack, also came to Savannah, Missouri, on horseback and by steamboat, bringing Mrs. Hallack's two children. One of them, Mary E. Hallack, was married to James McCord in 1854. In Savannah, Susan Steele Hallack was married to Dr. J. Hamilton Smith, a pioneer physician. Their daughter, Susan Helen Smith, was married to W. W. Wheeler in 1879. In this way, Mrs. James McCord and Mrs. W. W. Wheeler, half sisters, were first cousins of Dudley Mitchum Steele's daughters, Mrs. Armstrong Beattie Weakley and Mrs. Barton Pitts.

“Well, I want you to promise me one thing,” resumed the Governor. “I want you to pledge your word that when you are a mate again you will never take a billet of wood in your hand and drive a sick boy out of a bunk to help you load your boat on a stormy night.” The steamboat man said that he would not, and inquired what the Governor meant by asking him such a question.

“The Governor replied: "Because some day that boy may become a Governor, and you may want him to pardon you for a crime. One dark, stormy night many years ago you stopped your boat on the Mississippi to take on a load of wood. There was a boy on board who was working his passage from New Orleans to St. Louis, but he was very sick of a fever and was lying in a bunk. You had plenty of men to do the work, but you went to that boy with a stick of wood in your hand and drove him with blows and curses out into the wretched night, and kept him toiling like a slave until the load was completed. I was that boy. Here is your pardon. Never again be guilty of such brutality.' And the man, cowering and hiding his face, went out. As I never heard of him again, I suppose he took care not to break the law.”

Governor Stewart's term of office came to an end on January 3, 1861, when he turned the office over to his successor, Claiborne Fox Jackson. It happened to be the same day on which South Carolina announced its secession from the federal Union. In his valedictory address Stewart stated that he was not an abolitionist, but he felt that Missouri should not secede. He believed the Union must be preserved and that Missouri should remain neutral while some compromise over slavery could be worked out. This apparently was the view of the great majority of Missourians at that time.

On January 18, 1861, a Constitutional Convention of Missouri was called to consider the relations between the state and the federal government. Robert M. Stewart was elected a delegate from Buchanan County. The Convention voted, "There is now no adequate cause to impel Missouri to dissolve her connection with the Federal Union. As events unfolded in the next few months, Abraham Lincoln's call upon Governor Jackson to furnish volunteer troops to repel the rebellion and Jackson's denunciation of the call as 'illegal, unconstitutional, and revolutionary,’ Stewart joined in the meeting at Robert Wilson's home in St. Joseph-The Pines'-near Ashland Avenue, where the decision was made that the counties of northwest Missouri would stand fast in opposition to Missouri’s secession.

Robert M. Stewart never married. He had a friend in St. Joseph, William Carter, who established the first plough factory west of the Mississippi River, on Charles Street, between Sixth and Seventh Streets. During the years when Stewart was actively promoting the development of the Hannibal & St. Joseph Railroad, he made several trips to Washington. He invited Mr. Carter to accompany him on one of his eastern trips. While in the East, they visited Stewart's relatives and attended the school graduation exercises of Stewart's niece, in Herkimer County, New York. This acquaintance developed and the niece was married to William Carter. In St. Joseph, he built for her a 'country home on the corner of Eighth and Edmond Streets, with an apple orchard behind it. There Governor Stewart spent the last years of his life. He died on September 21, 1871, and was buried in Mt. Mora Cemetery. He was a man of brilliant intellect, winning manner, and compelling influence. His prospects, at one time, were not limited to the state. It was within grasp to have made his influence felt throughout the nation. He was a good governor, proud of the state which had honored him, and an urgent advocate of the state's internal improvements.

After Mr. Carter's death, the property at Eighth and Edmond Streets was sold, about 1883, to the United States government as the site for the post office. One of the Carter daughters became Mrs. Ralph Stauber, and her daughter, Mary Stauber, is now Mrs. Bartlett Boder.