I1: Ninian STEELE ( Dec 1738

Ninian STEELE

Dec 1738 - Dec 1813

BIRTH: Dec 1738, Ireland
DEATH: Dec 1813, Statesville Iredell Co NC
REFERENCE: 1-001

Father: Samuel STEELE

Family 1 : Elizabeth CHAMBERS

MARRIAGE: Mar 1770

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                  _Ninian STEELE _|
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 _Samuel STEELE _|
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|--Ninian STEELE 
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|________________|
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INDEX

[1] In a previous book, "Archibald Steele and His Descendants," I gave the genealogy of my paternal family "lines." In this volume I shall deal mostly with my maternal ancestry.
It so happens that this, too, is a "Steele line," but the two lines do not spring from the same ancestor, so far as I have been able to ascertain.
Ninian Steele, my mother's grandfather, was born 24th December, 1738. I am not sure where he was born, but I think it was in Ireland. It is certain that he or father came from Ireland to America. My opinion, after hearing all available evidence, is
that, when quite small, he came from Ireland with his father and settled in Chester county, PA. One old record saye he was a native of that country. He grew to manhood there and removed to Iredell County, NC,before the Revolutionary war, in which he
was a patriot soldier.
On the 15th March, 1770, he married Miss Elizabeth Chambers, who was born 6th March, 1748. She was a daughter of Henry and Jane (Futhy) Chambers, of Lancaster (possibly Chester) county, PA. Henry Chambers was born 13th July, 1708, and his wife in
1715. They were married 14th November, 1735. Henry Chambers and family moved to Iredell County, NC, about 1754, where he died 26th Ocotber, 1783, and she 25th June,1781.
Miss Anna Steele, who is eighty years old, now living at Hico, TX, and who is a great-granddaughter of Henry Chambers, says that the latter's wife's maiden name was Jane Futhy.
Ninian Steele probably first met his future wife in Iredell County, NC, where he and the Chambers family settled after moving from PA.
It is not certainly known what Ninian Steele's father's given name was, but I think from the slight evidence I have found that it was Samuel, and that he had two brothers in North Carolina named Samuel and robert, respectively.
"Ninian" is an old Scotch name, dating back to or beyond the sixth century. It was the name of a celebraated Christian missionary to the Picts and Scots of Scotland. It was often pronounced Nenian, and now it is sometimes spelled as thus pronounced.
Ninian Steele's mother was a Futhy, and Miss Anna Steele above mentioned says that she was a sister of the wife of Henry Chambers, this making Ninian Steele and his wife first cousins. It is possible that she has confused Henry Chambers with his son,
Henry Chambers, Jr.
Ninian Steele was a man of more than ordinary influence and enterprise in his community. It is positively claimed by his descendants in Iredell County, NC, that he built and operated the first cotton gin ever known in that state. He built it after
reading in a letter a description of the Whitney gin invented in 1793. It was situated on a fork of Fifth Creek near his home, ten miles from Statesville, and was run by water power. Parts of that first gin still exist.
Ninian Steele was known in his county as a "peacemaker." Tradition has it that he sometimes actually paid the amount of money in dispute between neighbors in order to stop a neighborhood broil. While he did not hesitate, as we believe, to act the
soldier in war, he was emphatically a man of peace in times of peace. This was certainly an excellent trait of character--a noble heritage to leave his children.
It is much to be regretted that we know so little about him of whose character we have these few glimpses.
He died on 30th December, 1813; his wife having died 26th January, 1810. Both were buried in Statesville, Iredell County, NC.

[2] THE STEELES IN WAR

[3] I will here briefly record the military history of Ninian Steele and his descendants in the Revolutionary War, and the great Civil War of 1861-5, and the Spanish-American War of 1898. The Steeles have always been quiet, peaceable citizens--the most
of them leading the plain retired life of the farmer. They had no taste or training for war.

[4] ROLL OF HONOR

[5] The American Revolutionary War.
So far as I have been able to find there are no official records that prove that Ninian Steele the First was a soldier in the Revolutionary War, but I hardly have a doubt that he was. Military records in the Carolinas were very imperfect during that
war. Absence of official records of such matters is not positive proof that they are not history.
Ninian Steele was thirty-seven years old when the war began. He was a good citizen and an Irish Presbyterian, and thus it seems there was every reason to suppose that he would take an active part in the struggle for liberty.

[6] I have a letter from a lady now eighty years old whose mother was an orphan girl reared in the family of Ninian Steele. This lady says that she has heard her mother say that Ninian Steele was a soldier in that war, and she used to hear her tell how
afraid the wife and children of Ninian Steele sometimes were, while he was gone to the war, and the British and Tory troops were reported to be in the community. There was no man at home to protect them, and the terror of those terrible days and the
nights of suspense deeply impressed their minds with the facts and the reasons for them. Hence I think we may rightly claim that our paternal ancestor was a soldier in the Revolutionary War. He was afterward called captain, but I have no evidence
that he was a captain in that war. Perhaps he was, or he may have been a captain of a company of State militia after the war. The custom, so common now, of calling almost every man by some title did not prevail in those days. Hence, when a man was
called captain or colonel then he usually was entitled to it in a military sense.

[7] During the great Civil War between the Southern and Northern States, 1861-65, twenty-four descendants of Ninian Steele were soldiers in the Confederate army, and so far as I know, not one in the army of the North. All of them lived in the South.
There were fourteen Confederate soldiers who before or since the war, were directly connected with the Steele family by mariage. While a people of peace and having no love for war, the Steeles were prompt to respond to the call of their several states
to defend those States from what they believed to be an unjust invasion. They honestly velieved in "States Rights," and acted on that belief. They fought to the end, but when they were whipped by overwhelming numbers and resources, they retired
peaceably to their homes without any feeling of dishonor, and determined to be as industrious and as loyal citizens as they had been brave and sacrificing soldiers. In all of my investigations, I have not heard of one of them who, as a soldier,
shirked his full duty or flinched from danger.

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