STEEL, GEORGE (1881-1923)

STEEL, GEORGE, Methodist minister, Newcastle circuit, 1879-81, and Chatham circuit, 1893-97; b. Phormandy parish, Yorkshire, England, 3 Dec 1851, s/o George Steel Sr and Ann Raw; m. 1st, 1880, Jemima Ann Smith, of Darlington, England, and 2nd, Isabella C. Wright; d. Saint John, 7 Jun 1923.

George Steel was educated privately in England and at government and Wesleyan schools. Before departing for Canada he worked as a clerk in the offices of a coal company in Northgate, England, and as a teacher in schools which the company conducted in the coalfields. He was also a licensed local preacher and was involved in Sunday school work.

Steel entered the ministry of the Eastern Canadian Conference of the Methodist church on trial in 1875 and was ordained in 1879, just before he began a two-year term at Newcastle. During a break in the summer of 1880 he went back to England to be married to Jemima Ann Smith. After he left Newcastle in 1881 he had appointments in Prince Edward Island and at the Carmarthen Street Church in Saint John.

Steel returned to the Miramichi in 1893 for a four-year term at Chatham. He was invited to remain a fifth year but returned to Saint John, to the pastorate of the Portland Methodist Church. From 1913 to 1922 he was superintendent of church missions. In 1914 he was appointed to the board of regents of Mount Allison University. In 1916 the university granted him an honorary DD, and in 1918 he was elected to the chairmanship of the board.

Steel was survived in 1923 by a daughter and three sons. His son George Douglas Steel was an English teacher at Prince of Wales College in Charlottetown and later principal of the college.