Steele, James

Born: 1823-09-27 New Hampshire

Died: 1880-09-04 Paris, Illinois

Flourished: 1845 to 1861 Paris, Illinois

James Steele, attorney and public official, was born in Strafford County, New Hampshire, moved to Macon County, Illinois with his family in 1837, then settled in Paris eight years later. He studied law under Charles Emerson and was admitted to the bar in 1849. Steele and Emerson were law partners between at least 1851 and 1854, and Steele subsequently partnered with Charles Summers in 1856 and Thomas C. W. Sale in 1859. He was appointed postmaster of Paris in 1851, was elected a county judge, and served as a leader in the Edgar County chapter of Freemasons. In 1860, Steele owned real estate valued at $4,800 and a personal estate valued at $3,000. In 1861, Steele was appointed a clerk in the Office of Indian Affairs in Washington, DC. He married his first wife, Margaret Clark, in 1850 and the pair had three children.

The History of Edgar County, Illinois (Chicago: Wm. Le Baron, Jr., 1879), 603; Illinois Statewide Marriage Index, Edgar County, 9 April 1850, Illinois State Archives, Springfield, IL; U.S. Census Office, Seventh Census of the United States (1850), Edgar County, IL, 195; John Livingston, Livingston’s Law Register (New York: Monthly Law Magazine, 1851), 46; John Livingston, Livingston’s Law Register (New York: Monthly Law Magazine, 1854), 89; John Livingston, Livingston’s Law Register (New York: Davies and Roberts, 1856), 111; John Livingston, Livingston’s United States Law Register (New York: John A. Gray, 1859), 199; Record of Appointment of Postmasters, 1832-1971, NARA Microfilm Publication, M841, 145 rolls, Records of the Post Office Department, RG 28, 1845-1855, 18:48, National Archives Building, Washington, DC; Nelson D. Elwood, Proceedings of the Grand Royal Arch Chapter of the State of Illinois (Chicago: Chas. Scott, 1858), 67; U.S. Census Office, Eighth Census of the United States (1860), Paris, Edgar County, IL, 29; Register of Officers and Agents, Civil, Military, and Naval, in the Service of the United States, on the Thirtieth September, 1861 (Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1862), 82; Bloomington Daily Pantagraph (IL), 7 September 1880, 1:3; Gravestone, Edgar Cemetery, Paris, IL.