Compiled by Russell Bastedo
State Curator
1998

Governor John Steele 1844, 1845. Steele (1789-1865) was born at Salisbury (NC). Orphaned at an early age, Steele was apprenticed at age fourteen (1803) to a maker of Windsor chairs and horse gigs and sulkies. A few years later he met Captain Nathaniel Morison, of Peterborough (NH), a coachmaker who was briefly at Fayetteville (NC). Morison met Steele, and told him to come north. Steele arrived at Peterborough in May, 1811.

Within a short time Steele moved on to making machines, and he rapidly gained a reputation for his mechanical skills. Steele married a local girl (Jane Moore, 1816), and in 1817 started the first power loom in New Hampshire, at Peterborough.

Steele was a manufacturer for seven years; then (1824) he built the Union Manufacturing Company's cotton mill at West Peterborough. Steele was superintendent of this mill for twenty years (1824-1845). He also owned a farm nearby.

Steele, a Democrat in politics, was elected State Representative (1829), and was as an aide to Governor Harvey (1830). He served as Town Moderator (1830-1838), and represented Hillsborough district on the Council (1840-1842). In 1842, in part for his health, Steele visited England and Ireland to see new machines and manufactures. He was elected Governor in 1844 and 1845.

Governor Steele supported his party's positions on the annex-ation of Texas, and on the Oregon Territory. When the state's geological survey was completed, and companies began to prospect for ores, Steele formed a Railroad Commission which had the power to compel farmers to sell land along railroad rights-of-way. He retired to his farm, and served as Deputy Grand Master of the Freemasons (1838-1851).

Location: State House, Second Floor, Corridor, West Face, Beginning at Room 208
Portrait copied by A. Tenney from original by H. Bundy; Purchased by the State (1873)