Charles Steele was an American lawyer and philanthropist who was a member of J.P. Morgan & Co. for 39 years.
Early life
He was a son of Isaac Nevett Steele and Rosa Londonia Steele. Among his siblings was the Rev. James Nevett Steele of Trinity Church, Mary Steele, John Nelson Steele, Rosa Nelson Steele, Kate Steele, Henry Maynadier Steele. His father was a "distinguished lawyer" who was "universally recognized for years as the leader of the Maryland Bar" and served as the Chargé d'Affaires, Venezuela under three U.S. Presidents, serving from 1850 to 1853. He was the nephew of Rep. John Nevett Steele, and Mary Nevett Steele, who married John Campbell Henry. His maternal grandfather was U.S. Representative, U.S. Ambassador to Italy and U.S. Attorney General John Nelson and his great-grandfather was Revolutionary War Brig. Gen. and U.S. Rep. Roger Nelson. Steele attended the University of Virginia, receiving a Master of Arts degree in 1878. He later graduated from Columbia Law School in 1880.
Career
After his graduation from Columbia, he was admitted to the bar in New York on motion of Theodore William Dwight. He first practiced alone, then in 1880, joined with Field, Dorsheimer, Bacon & Deyo, later renamed Dorsheimer, Bacon & Steele. He later became a partner of James A. Buchanan, the former head of the law department of the New York, Lake Erie and Western Railroad, in the firm of Buchanan & Steele, with Steele becoming general counsel of the Erie. Seward, Guthrie & Steele on February 1, 1892. In the 1890s, Morgan partner Charles H. Coster retained Steele to assist with reorganizing certain railroad interest, including the reorganization of the Erie Railroad. In 1900, Coster died and J. Pierpont Morgan invited Steele, during Coster's funeral, to become a partner in J.P. Morgan & Co. Steele then "played an important but unpublicized part in the affairs of the firm until 1934, when, because of his age, he gave up active participation. He remained a partner, however, until his death, although he gave up his many corporate directorships at his retirement." At the time of his admission, a single partnership agreement governed both the American and French houses of Morgan, therefore, Steele was admitted as a partner in the New York firm, the Philadelphia firm and the Paris firm. Steele, who became a close friend of Morgan, served on the corporate boards of the International Mercantile Marine Co., the U.S. Steel Corporation, the Southern Railroad Company, the International Harvester Company, Cerro de Pasco, and the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad.
Personal life
In 1885, Steele was married to Richmond-born Ann "Nannie" Gordon French. She was the daughter of Ellen Mercer French, a descendant of Revolutionary War general Hugh Mercer, and Seth Barton French, a former Confederate soldier who became a cotton brokerafter the War and later an associate at J.P. Morgan. She was an older half-sister of Dr. John Herndon French, who also lived in New York, from her father's second marriage to Mary Walker Fearn. The Steele's maintained residences in New York City, in Old Westbury, and a large cottage in Southampton, New York. Together, Charles and Nannie were the parents of three daughters:
Eleanor Herndon Steele, who married Count Jean de la Greze of Paris in 1910. They divorced in 1920, and she married Dr. Louis Debonnesset in 1920. They also divorced and she married H. Hall Clovis in 1930. They too divorced and she remarried for the fourth and final time to Emmet P. Reese in 1941.
Steele was noted for his generous philanthropy both during his lifetime, and after his death which totaled $5,000,000. A lover of music and former pupil of Dr. T. Tertius Noble, he gave $100,000 in 1922 to St. Thomas' Church for the purchase of buildings for a permanent choir school, today known as the Saint Thomas Choir School, which was founded in 1919. He gave an additional $300,000 to endow the school in 1925, and another $100,000 to the Church upon his death.
