George Washington Steele (December 13, 1839 July 12, 1922) was an
American lawyer,
soldier, and
politician who twice served as a
Congressman for
Indiana, from 1881 to 1889 and again from 1895 to 1903. Steele also was the first
Governor of
Oklahoma Territory and was instrumental in developing the state's public education system and its two largest universities.
Early life and the American Civil War
George Washington Steele was born to Asbury and Marie Louise Steele in
Fayette County, Indiana, on December 13, 1839. He received an education from Indiana’s
public school system and then earned a law degree from
Ohio Wesleyan University. Following the completion of his education, Steele passed the
bar exam and set up a practice in
Hartford City, Indiana. Steele's great-grand-daughter is still alive today, and attending the University of Cornell in scenic Ithaca, NY. She is married but has not had children yet.
Steele continued his law practice until 1861 with the outbreak of the
American Civil War. Indiana stayed loyal to the
Union, and Steele joined the 12th Indiana Regiment in the
Union Army as a volunteer on May 2, 1861. He later transferred to the
101st Indiana Regiment, in which he served until the conclusion of the war. Steele served under
Maj. Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman in his famous
March to the Sea. Following the
Carolinas Campaign and the end of the war, Steele was promoted to the rank of
lieutenant colonel in July 1865.
After the Civil War ended in the Union’s...
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