Obituary of William Steele Jr/ Woodford county, Kentucky
“(COMMUNICATED) OBITUARY: Death ever brings with it affliction. It is painful for us to part with our friends, even when their locks are silvered over by the chilling frosts of age and they fall asleep in the winter of their days; or when fell disease and relentless adversity have rendered life a burthen [sic]. But when we are called to pay the last sad tribute of respect to a tried and loved companion, cut off in the bud of promise, in the spring time of life, to consign to the narrow house of death, him, whom, but a few days since, we have seen animated and glowing with all the vigour and fervour of youth, and surrounded with smiling happiness, it requires all our fortitude to bear without murmuring the dispensations of him “who giveth and who taketh away.” The truth of this remark has been but too forcibly brought ------------- -------- by the untimely death of WM. STEELE JR. whose loss has been so deeply felt, so universally (missing words at end of this sentence and beginning of next) fever. He departed this life on the 14th inst. in the 27th year of his age at the residence of his father, Col. WILLIAM STEELE in the county of Woodford. On the following day his remains were attended to the grave by the members of Webb Chapter and Landmark Lodge, together with a numerous collection of afflicted friends and relations, where he was interred with the honors of Masonary [sic], and an appropriate and feeling Address delivered by Maj. P. Butler at the request of the Masonic fraternity. It may truly be said, that Mr. Steele was beloved by all who knew him. Yet it was only to those who knew him intimately that his real worth was known. It was to those friends with whom he had been long in the habit of associating, that he bared his heart, unfolded all this latent virtues, and discovered the noble, and generous traits of his character. His mind, naturally energetic, was well stored with that solid & practical information which peculiarly fitted him for future usefulness. In his manners he was plain, unaffected, unassuming. In his nature were happily blended all the softer with the sterner virtues.
“His life was gentle, and the element
“So mix’d in him, that nature might stand up,
“And say to all the world: This was a man.”
Liberal and benevolent in his sentiments, whilst conscious of the purity of his own, he never impugned the motives of others. Prompt, without being hasty; firm, yet not obstinate, when satisfied of his rectitude, he was immovable. Yet he ever lent an attentive ear to the voice of reason, and willingly yielded his favorite plans and opinions when convinced they were founded in error. Reared up in affluence, he assumed no superiority, but associated upon the level of equality with the poor and the rich. A pillar of strength and beauty in the Masonic edifice, he wore unsullied by a stain, the badge of his order; ardently attached to its principles, he reduced them to practice, thereby putting to “silence the tongues of foolish men;” and teaching his brothers by example, to spread the cement of brotherly love, to circumscribe their passions and act upon the square. To his friends it will be long before his loss can be supplied; his presence lessened their cares and heightened all their joys. To them he was a faithful monitor, prompt alike to censure their faults and to commend their virtues. In him, death has deprived his parents of their last son, one who had been endeared to them by his respectful obedience, by the tenderness of his affection, by anticipating their wants and administering to their comforts; one, in whom all their affections centered; the hope, the pride, the solace of their declining years; to him they turned for consolation when others had been taken from them; he, at least, they fondly hoped, would have been spared to render pleasant the downhill of their lives, to smoothe their passage to another world, when in a good old age they should be called from this their transitory existence, and to water their graves with the tears of filial affection. But alas! Death has blasted their loud expectations, entombed with him their earthly joy and left a void in their hearts which he alone could fill.”
Argus of Western America
Frankfort, Kentucky
Wednesday, August 27, 1823
No. 27Vol. 16
Page 3Columns 3 & 4