Robert Williamson Steele
American politician (1820-1901)
Robert Williamson Steele (January 14, 1820 – February 7, 1901) was governor of the extralegal Territory of Jefferson, which existed in the western United States from 1859 to 1861, when it was replaced by the Territory of Colorado.
Early life
Steele was born near Chillicothe in Ross County, Ohio. He farmed until 1846, when he began the study of law at Fairfield, Iowa. In 1848 he married Susan Nevin at Hillsboro, Ohio, and graduated from the Law School of Cincinnati four years later. In 1855, Steele moved to Omaha, settling in Douglas County of the Nebraska Territory. He was elected as a Democrat to the Nebraska Territorial House of Representatives to represent Douglas County in 1857
The following year, news reached Omaha of gold discovered along the South Platte River. On March 25, 1859, Steele set out for the gold fields with his wife Susan and four children in an ox-drawn prairie schooner. They arrived at Denver City in May. Steele soon moved to Central City, where he prospected for gold. He also served as president of the Consolidated Ditch Company.
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This entry incorporates text from “Robert Williamson Steele” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.