George McKendree Steele

The Rev. Dr. George McKendree Steele, D.D., LL.D. (April 13, 1823 – 1901?) was an American educator and Methodist minister, president of Lawrence University in Appleton, Wisconsin from 1865-1879. He was the author of the 1876 pamphlet The Currency Question, which was regarded as a major statement of the philosophy of the Greenback movement; and was a Greenback Party nominee for Congress and other public office.

Background

Steele was born in Strafford, Vermont on April 13, 1823, one of seven children of Joel Steele (a Methodist minister) and Jerusha (Higgins) Steele. He spent his youth on a farm in his native town, with little formal schooling; but was able to attend Newbury Seminary, after which he taught briefly and then entered the Wesleyan University, from which he graduated in 1850. He spent three years thereafter (1850-1853) as a teacher of Latin and mathematics at Wilbraham Wesleyan Academy in Wilbraham, Massachusetts, and married Susan J. Swift on July 1, 1852.