Samuel Hamblin Steele
Evidence from newspaper, census, and genealogical records proves that Samuel traveled to Utah in 1851 and that he married soon after his arrival in Utah and received a patriarchal blessing here in Oct. 1851. The fact that he did not appear on the Utah census taken in spring 1851 is proof that he traveled to Utah in 1851.
A "Brief Summary of B.F. Barrus and Lovina Steele," (Samuel's daughter) written by Lovina Ann's daughter, Mary Luella, says that the Steele family came to Utah in 1851 with the Joshua Grant Company, and settled in Tooele County. However, the Grant Company was a small freight company consisting of only eleven men and one woman, no children are mentioned. On the other hand, a History of Lovina Steele, written by her husband (Benjamin Franklin Burrus) while Lovina was still living, says that her parents had separated when Lovina was five years old (about 1849) and that Samuel and his children (Lovina and Albert) arrived in Council Bluffs in 1851. Samuel left the children at Council Bluffs in the care of a Brother Hill "expecting them to come to the Valley the next season" while he (Samuel) continued on across the plains. Both of these histories can be found in Lovina Ann's record in FamilyTree (KWN2-841). Lovina's obituary says that she arrived in Utah in 1852.
