JOHN STEELE is a son of William M. and Sarah Kay (McDowell) Steele, natives of Jessamine County. The father was born August 14, 1814, and died August 16, 1845. The mother was born June 3, 1822, and died October, 1862. Samuel C. Steele, grandfather of John, was also a native of Jessamine County, Ky., was born in 1790, and married in 1812 to Elizabeth Mitchum, a native of Woodford County, Ky. He had nine children: William M., Julian, Susan (Mrs. Hamilton Halleck), Helen (Mrs. Milton Singleton), David M., Samuel C., John M., James and Johanna (Mrs. Edward Rogers). The great grandfather, David Steele, a native of Virginia, married a third cousin, Miss Mary Steele, and died in 1785. He had four children: Thomas, Samuel C., David (a soldier of 1812) and William, killed in the war of 1812, in Illinois, by Indians.
