Henry Steele was born in the tiny village of Bristol, Quebec located about 20 miles from Hull on the Ottawa River across from Arnprior Ontario. The year was 1858. His father was John Steele and his mother Sarah Odber. He was one of 14 children. We know little of his early backgound or upbringing, but it is apparent that he migrated to Ontario in the early 1880's.
    The following pages give a brief chronology of his family beginning with Henry's marriage to Lydia Brazier in Bristol and his later marriage to Emily Cameron in Nipissing, but whose birthplace was also in Bristol. She was the daughter of Thomas Cameron and Mary Cuthbertson.

                        Henry Steele and Lydia Brazier

In 1874 at the age of 25 Henry Steele married Lydia Brazier. The couple had one child, Louisa Alice who was born August 3 1875 and was baptized on Sept. 5 the same year, in St George's Anglican church in Portage du Fort. The only witness to sign the baptism form was Lydia Brazier.  No evidence has appeared regarding the death of Lydia Brazier or what happened to Louisa Alice.
   Subsequent census data showing the family of Henry Steele and his second wife Emily Cameron in April 1891 do not show Louisa as part of the family. Admittedly she would have been 16 years old at the time of the census taking, and could have been living elsewhere.

        It was a strange fact that at no time were the grand children of Henry Steele and
        Henry Steele ever aware that he had a previous marriage before his marriage to
        Emily Cameron.  Whether his children knew of his earlier marriage and said
        nothing or whether they themselves knew nothing of this first marriage will
         probably never be known.
        Certainly HenrySteele's daughter Cassie, mother of this writer, did not ever
         say that her father had a prior marriage before his marriage to Emily.
         The true story will probably never be known.
 
 

                                        The Move to Ontario

It seems a series of events combined to encourage farmers in Pontiac Cty to move to Ontario. One of the first settlers was Robert Barton of Pontiac cty who first moved to Hotham in the Nipissing area in 1869. Evidently he encouraged others and the booklet "Pioneer Days in the Township of  Nippissing" published by the Township of Nipissing identifies a number of other early settlers from  Pontiac Cty including Joe Steele, brother to Henry.
    A second contributing factor was the Free Grants and Homesteads Act of 1868, which undoubtedly appealed to many settlers who wished to pioneer the new lands.
   Although attracted by the grants of land it became clear, as the following evidence shows, Henry Steele was not to become a farmer.

                               The Topps Maps Evidence

A series of Maps prepared by a team from the University of Nipissing and referred to as the Topps maps consisted of a group of three maps for each township.(r2)
     The maps indicating the name of the first person to patent or lease each 100 acres of land is  followed by one which shows the date of earliest occupation and the third indicates the means by  which the party named obtained legal right to use the land.
An investigation of these maps by geographers Beth and David Clutchey show clearly the path taken by Henry Steele. He was given a grant of land consisting of 100 acres in Concession 7 Lot 15 of Nipissing Twp. Map 1 shows the occupant to be Marguerite Simpson with an asterisk leading the researchers to a summary which show the original recipient of the land under the Free Land Grant to have been Henry Steele. Obviously Henry had not completed therequirements of the Act and the land was returned to the Crown and reallocated.

What did Henry do?   He was an Hotel keeper.
 

                Henry Steele and Emily Cameron

Marriage records for Ontario show Henry Steele and Emily Cameron were married April 14 1886, in Nipissing Ontario, by the Rev. B. Longley. The groom's parents were given as John Steele and Sarah Odber, the bride's as Thomas Cameron and Mary Cuthbertson. Henry's age was listed as 28 and Emily's as 20. Henry's occupation was given as 'Hotel keeper'. The witnesses were Harriet Longley  ( wife of minister?) and Kate O'Meara.

There are two noticeable discrepancies in the information given in the documents of marriage.  First Henry"s age is listed as 28 but since he was born in 1849, he must have been 35

Second, he was listed as a bachelor, when in fact his earlier marriage would have resulted in his being either a widower or a divorcee.

The Family

The first documented evidence of the family of Henry and Emily appears in the Census of
            Ontario District 95, Muskoka and Parry Sound dated April 6, 1891.
Here Henry is listed as being 35 years of age and Emily ( Emma) 26. Both give the province of
Quebec as their place of birth while Henry incorrectly gives his father's birthplace as Ontario, it
 should be Scotland, and his mother's birthplace as Ontario, it should have been Ireland.  Both parents are listed as belonging to the Church of England and Henry's occupation is 'Hotel Keeper'

Their three children at the time are Sarah Elizabeth, 5 years, Euphemia ( Stella), 4 years and Mary
                                 Eva, 1 Year.
In 1901 the Census lists the family as follows, Henry 43, Emma 34, (Christina ?, 14 )
    Euphemia 12, Mary Eva 9, Cassie 4, William 3, Tressa -infant. At the time the family was still
     living in the Nipissing District, possibly Powassan. One more child was to follow, Georgina.
  Eventually the family moved to Haileybury Ontario where Henry Steele owned and ran the King
                            Edward Boarding House.

                                  It was there tragedy struck not once, but twice

A Clipping From the Cobalt Nugget Newpaper, reprinted in the Shawville Equity (PQ) reported the following:

                   "  On the morning of April 25, 1919, the King Edward hotel  in Haileybury
                                    owned by Henry Steele a former reident of Clarendon was destroyed by fire.
                                    In the fire Mrs. Steele got so severely burned that she died from the effects
                                    of her injuries a few hours later.  A forty mile gale was blowing at the time and
                                    three other buildings were damaged.  the loss was estimated at $ 6,400.00"
 

It seems that Emily, thinking that one of her children, Tressa, was still in the house ran back into
the burning building to save her, not knowing that Tressa had managed to escape and was safely on the outside.

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