The Steele Orphans

Our next story is that of one of the many Steele families of West Hartford. My search began with this clip from the Hartford Daily Courant: 

"Truly Melancholy.- Died, very suddenly, yesterday morning, in West Hartford, Mr. Mason Steel, aged 41, and within two hours of his decease, his wife, aged 36, expired, having recently given birth to an infant, which died the day previous. Thus in a short space of a few hours, the father, mother, and child, in the same house, lay cold in death. About two weeks ago, they buried a very interesting daughter, aged 16. They had generally enjoyed excellent health, and a few weeks since their prospects of long life were as fair as any of us. Truly, in the midst of life we are in death. By this dispensation of Providence, six little children are left orphans."

Mason and Caroline share a headstone which lies flat beside that of their daughter, Nancy Jane. They are buried in West Hartford's historic North Cemetery.

This was one of those stories that I couldn't stop researching until I had all the details. How did Mason, Caroline, her infant, and Nancy Jane all die in such a short span of time?  And what happened to their surviving six children?

Discovering the answers was a far more complex process than I originally thought. First of all, information from the 1840s isn't always easy to find. The 1840 census is the last one that doesn't list the names of family members. It just lists the head of the household (usually a man) and the number of people in the household who are male or female, black or white, slave or free, and what their ages are within a decade. It does not make for simple searches. I spent several years going back to the Steeles, finding and adding more information until I finally found them all. The six orphaned children are listed below, and I will tell you each of their stories in as much detail as I can.

Frederick (15)

Mary Ann (12)

Sarah (9)

Henry (8)

Horace (5)

Lucy (2) 

When I did a probate record search for Mason Steele, it turned out that each of his surviving children had a page in the records. In these records, Benjamin Belden, John Belden, Walter Deming, Gideon Deming, Morgan Goodwin, and William Goodwin, all of West Hartford, were assigned in pairs by the court to act as the guardians for the six children. These days, guardianship of children means that they are placed in your care- they live with you and you care for them. Nineteenth Century guardianship was very different. These men were in charge of the money that would keep the children - and they were paid an annual fee to do it.

Sadly, the day their parents died was the last that the children would all live under the same roof. The evidence of their whereabouts is scanty, but from the probate records, I found that from 1843 to about 1846, Horace was boarded at the home of Bela Balch in West Hartford and Henry lived at the home of a Mrs. E. Steel, to whom I could find no relation to the children. 

“To cash paid Mrs. E. Steel for one years board from Sept. 1st 1843 to Sept. 1st 1844” “To cash paid Mrs. E. Steel for Board for H.B. Steel”

So this treasure trove of information gave me a look into the lives of the six Steeles. In addition to noting Henry's boarding fees, a note was made that Walter Deming should be paid for “...time spent in getting him a place”. The same note was made for Mary Ann, while Frederick was given cash to cover the expenses for a trip to Boston and for Sarah to take a trip to Southbridge, MA.

While this information looks neat and clean now, I found the probate documents after I spent several years tracking down all of Caroline's and Mason's siblings and living family members in an attempt to find the children. Since the census information wasn't always correct, it took some finagling to find them in the 1850 census. By searching for their names, places of birth, and ages, I was finally able to do so, despite Mary Ann and Sarah being listed as having been born in Massachusetts, and Lucy being listed as Lucy Whitehouse (for her adoptive parents).

In 1850, the children were:

Frederick (23): Working as a shoemaker in Newark, NJ. 

Mary Ann (20): In Southbridge, MA with their maternal aunt Polly Wheat, who was unmarried and had no children.

Sarah (17): Also in Southbridge with Polly Wheat.

Henry (16): Living with Benjamin Belden's family in West Hartford.

Horace (13): Living with Milton Braman's family in West Hartford. 

Lucy (10): Living with maternal aunt Emeline (Wheat) Whitehouse and her husband, George, who had no children of their own.

In 1860, the children were:

Frederick (33): 

Mary Ann (30): In Southbridge, MA with their maternal aunt Polly Wheat, who was unmarried and had no children.

Sarah (27): Also in Southbridge with Polly Wheat.

Henry (26): Living with Benjamin Belden's family in West Hartford.

Horace (23): Living with Milton Braman's family in West Hartford. 

Lucy (20): Living with her adoptive parents, working as a seamstress in Southbridge, MA.

Just like Anne Shirley and Harry Potter, the Steele orphans moved on from their tragedy and lived full lives.

Frederick married Jennette Clark and it seems they had no children. He died in 1894 and his wife in 1908. They are buried in Hartford's Old North Cemetery.

Research on Mary Ann is ongoing (updates some day!)

Sarah married Daniel Ward Richmond and they had three sons. They lived in New York City and she passed away in 1905. Her obituary from The Christian Advocate is below. Sarah has living descendants.

As mentioned in Sarah's obituary, Henry lived in Wales, MA when he passed away in 1918. He and his wife Matilda had four children and have many living descendants. 

Horace married Julia Walker in 1859, with whom he had one son. Each subsequent generation seems to have had one male child to carry on the Steele name. Horace still has living descendants in Connecticut.

Lucy Steele Whitehouse married Julius Gleason and died at the age of 42. They had one daughter, Carrie, who married but had no children.

Many of the Steele orphans' descendants have no idea that their ancestors went through such a harrowing time as children.