William Alexander Steel (1836- 1879), an American lawyer, businessman, and politician. Steel was born in Blairsville, Pa, son of Hon. Stewart Steel (1800-1861) and his second wife Myrtilla Sterrett Bishop Steel (1806-1876). In 1855, Steel went TO Missouri with Lorenzo P. Sanger (1809-1875), a prominent canal and railroad builder and contractor. In 1857, he moved to Joliet, Ill. to join a firm founded by Sanger and Samuel K. Casey; Sanger & Casey had been awarded the contract to build the Joliet Prison. From 1858 to July 1860, Steel served as Deputy Warden of the Alton Prison. He then returned to Missouri and was admitted to the bar in St. Louis on Apr. 4, 1861. Although he made frequent trips to Joliet, Steel lived in St. Louis during the Civil War. He provided legal work for the firm Sanger, Wallace & Mix that had been contracted to supply horses and mules to the United States Army. In January 16, 1862, he married Sanger's daughter Frances Louise (1842-1880). Steel co-founded, with Sanger and Charles W. McCord, the National Iron Works. Although he was a Democrat who disapproved of the policies of the Lincoln administration, Steel was devoted to the Union. In 1861, he raised a battalion for the defense of St. Louis and became Major of the unit known as the National Iron Works Battalion. in November 1862, the company was awarded government contracts to build six gunboats and monitors for the Union Navy; Steel worked very closely with Joseph Brown (1823-1899) on these contracts. At the end of the war, Steel left St. Louis and moved to Joliet. In July 1865, in partnership with his father-in-law, he acquired the limestone quarries; the company supplied stone for the government buildings throughout the Midwest, including the St. Louis Four Courts; the railroad bridge over the Mississippi River at Dubuque, the United States Marine Hospital at Chicago, and the new State Capitols of Illinois and Michigan. The firm also took the contract to deepen a section of the Illinois & Michigan Canal. Steel also owned and operated coal mines in Braceville and Gardner, Ill. in partnership with W. H. Odell. Steel was elected Mayor of Joliet 1869 and was reelected three times. He succeeded in pushing through the state legislature an act that allowed the city of Joliet to make an appropriation for the building of the Joliet Iron and Steel Works. In March 1870, Steel was licensed to practice in the U.S. Supreme Court and in 1871, the U.S. Court of Claims. Steel was also known as a book collector. In 1867, he opened the first public library in Joliet. William A. Steel died in an accident in 1879; his wife died a year later. The Steels had three children: Sanger A. Steel (1863 - 1920), Louise Steel Fish (1866-1893), and Frances Steel Robinson (1870-1950).
From the description of Letterbooks of William A. Steel, 1862, Aug. 28 -- 1877, Oct. 22. (Huntington Library, Art Collections & Botanical Gardens). WorldCat record id: 753739653
