Elizabeth Van Benthuysen Steele

Elizabeth Van Benthuysen was born in March 1777. She was the daughter of Obadiah and Anna Rumney Van Benthuysen. She grew up as a middle child in a large family on the Southside of Albany.

In April 1797, she was just twenty when she married newcomer bookbinder Daniel Steele at the Albany Dutch church. Ten months later the first of their eleven children was christened in Albany. Connecticut native Steele was a notable Presbyterian.

This Steele family also made its home in the first ward where Daniel was a prominent bookbinder and publisher who employed Elizabeth's brother - first as an apprentice then as his successor.

In 1820, the Albany census listed seven family members and two servants as residing in this Steele household on Liberty Street.

Elizabeth Van Benthuysen Steele passed on in March 1825 and was buried in the Presbyterian church plot. She had lived but forty-eight years. Daniel Steele died three years later.

Sources: The life of Elizabeth Van Benthuysen Steele is CAP biography number 5374. This sketch is derived chiefly from family and community-based resources.