Richard Holloway Steele Letters

Richard Holloway Steele, the son of John B. and Eliza B. (Holloway) Steele, was born in Watervliet, New York on September 17, 1824. A Reformed minister, he served the Presbyterian churches of Charlton, Albany, and Ballston Spa, as well as the Reformed Church at Nassau, N.Y.

Steele was pastor of the First Reformed Church in New Brunswick, N.J., for seventeen years, from 1863 to 1880. He then proceeded to Ann Arbor, Michigan, where for seven years he was pastor of the Presbyterian Church. He then retired from active work in the ministry and lived quietly in Detroit with his family.

A prolific writer, Steele published many sermons, addresses and historical discourses, including "America, a land pre-eminently blessed," a sermon preached in the Reformed Protestant Dutch Church, Nassau, N.Y., on Thanksgiving Day, November 25, 1852. He spoke and published much on the duty of patriotism during the Civil War, including "Victory and mourning: a sermon occasioned by the death of Abraham Lincoln, late president of the United States, preached in the first Reformed Dutch Church, New Brunswick, N.J., June 1st. 1865."

He was married to Miss Frances Hays of Milton, N.Y., on December 13, 1848. They had three children, Charles H., M.D., (Rutgers College Class of 1872), E. Francis (Fannie), and Wallace. Richard Holloway Steele died on April 5, 1900 and was buried in Detroit, Michigan, next to his wife and son Wallace, who had pre-deceased him.