Steele, John

Steele, John (1), a minister of the Associate Reformed Church, was born in York County, Pa., Dec. 17, 1772, and received his collegiate education at Dickinson College, where he graduated in 1792. He studied theology under the Rev. John Young, of Greencastle, Pa., and was licensed by the First Associate Reformed Presbytery of Pennsylvania May 25, 1797, and ordained in August, 1799. He then went to Kentucky, where he had charge of four congregations till 1803, when he was relieved of two. In 1817 he removed to Xenia, O., where he remained until October 1836. He had just moved to Oxford, and had made some arrangements for his family, when he died suddenly, Jan. 11, 1837. He was an able, clear-headed theologian, well read in Church history, and versed in ecclesiastical affairs; and served long and ably as clerk both of his presbytery and synod. See Sprague, Annals of the Amer. Pulpit, 9, 102.