In 1763, Thomas Steel, with James Hemphill and Stephen White, left home on a trading expedition, taking with them pack-horses, loaded with articles suited for traffic with the Indians. Steel was an experienced trader, having frequently performed such journeys, and was acquainted with the Indian language. He and his companions were absent a year or more, going through the far West to the Mississippi, where they took canoes and went down the river to New Orleans. On their return homeward, they were taken by some Indians, who stripped them of everything, even to their clothes; but they escaped with their lives, and succeeded in getting back into the French settlements. White was a blacksmith, and worked at his business to procure clothes and food for himself and his companions. Having been thus refitted for the journey, they set out once again, traveling through the primitive forest. One morning, when they were about to resume their journey, Steel had chanced to walk out of sight. The others waited for his return, and, after some time, heard a gun discharged at a distance. They quitted their place of encampment in haste, to go in search of him; but their search was fruitless; nor did their missing companion ever come back. They supposed he had been killed when they heard the gun fired, and that his body was either carried off by the murderer, or so concealed in the woods that no search availed to find it. Certain of his death, they pursued their way home, bearing the sad news to his family.
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