Dr. Alden Hatch Steele was
an early pioneer of Oregon, coming to that State in 1849 with the 1st Rifle
Regiment, LI. S. A., crossing the plains to Vancouver.
He was born in Oswego, New York, the youngest
of three sons of Orlo Steele and Fanny Abbey. The oldest brother. Elijah Steele
was a prominent lawyer and for many years was Superior Judge in Siskiyou County,
California.
The other brother, William, was a graduate of
West Point, and served in both the Mexican and Civil wars.
Dr. Steele graduated from the Medical
Department of the University of New York in 1846. At the time he reached Oregon
Territory, Oregon City was the principal town, and he settled there, marrying
Hannah Hooper Bladder of Marblehead, Mass., who came to Oregon as a teacher
under the protection of Rev. G. H. Atkinson, a Congregational clergyman, who had
been to the Eastern States asking for volunteers for this work in the new
country.
Dr. Steele had great influence with the Indians
and settled many of their disputes. In 1857 he was physician in charge of the
Grand Rounde Indian Reservation and again in 1870 served in the same way the
Indians of Nesqually, Chehalis and Squaxon Island Reservations, then in charge
of Col. Samuel Ross, U. S. A. During the Civil War. Dr. Steele was post surgeon
at Fort Dalles and Fort Stevens. Oregon, and Fort Steilacoom, Wash. This last
named Post was where the present Insane Asylum is now situated.
In 1869 the troops at Fort Steilacoom were
ordered to Alaska and Dr. Steele. feeling he had done his share of frontier
work, resigned from the army and took up his professional work in Olympia, where
he built a home at the southeast corner of Franklin and Tenth Streets and lived
until his death, in 1902.
During the years spent in Oregon and Washington
he held many places of trust and prominence in public affairs, and was widely
known as a leading physician and surgeon all through his life. In 1852 Dr.
Steele used chloroform in amputating a limb, the first used in surgery north of
San Francisco.
He was mayor of Oregon City three terms and a
member of the city council eleven years. In Olympia he was an earnest worker for
all public improvements, helping to start the first Gas & Power Co., director
for many years of the First National Bank, and stockholder in the railroad to
Tenino. and the "Olympia" Hotel, built by the citizens by hard efforts V> help
keep the capital on the old historic spot. Dr. Steele was an earnest member of
the Episcopal church, and was one of the committee that sent a request to New
York in 1853. asking for a Bishop for the Northwest. This request was answered
by the election of Thomas Fielding Scott, in 1854, as first Missionary Bishop
for the Territory of Oregon, a territory then extending over the present State
of Washington. He was also a member of the first convocation called by Bishop
Scott, to establish the church in this new field. He was always a vestryman of
St. John's Church, Olympia, and junior warden and treasurer for twenty years.
Dr. Steele was appointed by Gov. Ferry as
Regent of the University, serving two terms. Also medical examiner of the
territorial penitentiary for six years, medical examiner of the New York Mutual
Life Insurance Company for twenty-five years, and for several other life
insurance companies. He was an honorary member of both the Oregon and Washington
Medical Societies.
Dr. Steele died at his home in Olympia, June
29th. 1902. aged 79. He left his wife and one daughter, a son having died many
years before. His daughter, Fanny Orlo, married in 1878 Russell G. O'Brien of
Olympia, who came to Washington in 1870 with Governor Salomon, as Assistant
Collector of Internal Revenue.
He was known as the "Father of the National
Guard of Washington," organizing the first company of the present militia in
Olympia in 1882 and serving as Adjutant General of the State for twenty-five
years. He died in Pasadena. California, in February, 1914. General and Mrs.
O'Brien had three children, a daughter, Florence Bladder, died in 1883; a son,
R. Lloyd, who was a prominent student and athlete at the State University, where
he completed his course as a Civil Engineer, died Nov. 26, 1912. The youngest
daughter, Helen Steele, married George A. Aetzel, vice president of the Olympia
Door Company, and resides in Olympia. One son, Charles Alden, was born in 1912
to Mr. and Mrs. Aetzel
Source: Early History of Thurston County, Washington By Georgiana
Mitchell Blankenship; submitted by Barbara Ziegenmeyer