By Dodie E. (Smith) Browning
Copyright - all rights reserved

Harrison Steele was born 14 May 1852, Pike Co. KY, the son of John and Martha (Mounts) Steele. Harrison's wife was Nancy Hatfield, the daughter of Valentine and Jane (Maynard) Hatfield. Harrison's father in law was the brother of Anderson "Devil Anse" Hatfield. and he was deeply involved in the infamous "Hatfield McCoy Feud." He was convicted for his part in the feud and died in jail in Kentucky. The story of the Hatfields is best left for Hatfield descendants, but this part is printed here to give some history of the family, about whom much has been written in history books.

Harrison Steele and his wife Nancy lived in the part of Logan County (Magnolia Census District) that later became Mingo County, WV. Harrison and Jane were married 12 January 1875, when he was about twenty or twenty one and Nancy was about seventeen years of age. According to the 1880 Federal Census of Logan County, they had three children by that time.
1. Smith E. Steele, age 4, (born circa 1876)
2.. Elisa Steele, age 2 (born circa 1878)
3.. Lanville Steele, one month old (born 2 June 1880) Either this was a mistake by the Census taker or "Lon" changed his name to by the time he became a prominent doctor in Logan County years later. Harrison had died by 1900 (cause of death not known to me, but he died during the time the feud was winding down and feudists were being prosecuted. It is not known if he had an active role in the feud.)

Mingo County was formed in 1895 and Magnolia District of Logan County was incorporated into the newly formed Mingo County. The 1900 Census of Mingo County WV, Head of Household # 522, was Nancy Steele, shown as a widow with two sons, Smith E., age 23 and Lon, age 19. (This is the son who became a physician.) There was an adopted son Shade Bragg, one year old , in Nancy's household, as well as a boarder, Louisa Hubbard, a single woman with two small children: Pearl Hubbard, age four and Willie Hubbard, seven months old. Apparently Elisa (Eliza?) had married by that time.

According to Margie Blankenship Salazar, her ancestor Elizabeth Steele married Scott Browning of Matewan in 1895. It is believed by this writer that Margie's ancestor, Elizabeth was in fact, Eliza Steele, the daughter of Harrison and Nancy (Hatfield) Steele. Household # 494 of the same Census, shows Scott Browning , age 23, married four years. His wife was Eliza and they had two children in 1900, a daughter, Dixie, age two and a son Kenna (?) 2 months old.

Nancy (Hatfield) Steele lived next door to her sister in law, Rutha (Steele) Staton, and her husband Evermont Staton. Nancy was two doors from her mother in law, Martha, who was the widow of John Steele who never returned home from the War Between The States. Martha was living in her own household, alone, but she was next door to her daughter, Rutha (Steele) Staton. Living next door to Martha Steele, as Head of Household # 525, was Ellen Bragg, single, age 25. shown as a boarder in her household, was John Mayhorn, single, age 24. These were the only two people in that household. More than likely, there was a close relationship to little boy, Shade Bragg, who was shown as the adopted son of Nancy (Hatfield) Steele.

Following is documentation from a secondary source, which states that Eliza was the wife of Scott Browning.

From The History of West Virginia, Old and New Published 1923, by The American Historical Society, Inc., Chicago and New York, Volume II, page 234

Lonzo Edward Steele, M. D., is established in the active general practice of his profession at Logan, judicial center of the West Virginia County of the same name, where for the past ten years he has had a heavy professional practice in connection with leading coal mining corporations in this section. He was also one of the founders of the admirably equipped Logan Hospital, which has proved of inestimable value in providing proper hospital facilities in connection with mining operations.

Doctor Steele was born on a farm east of Williamson, Mingo County, on Tug River, June 2, 1880, Mingo County at that time having been still a part of Logan County. He is a son of Harrison and Nancy (Hatfield) Steele, the father having been a successful farmer and also identified with the timber industry in this section of the state, and his father, John Steele, having been a loyal soldier of the Confederacy in the Civil War. Valentine Hatfield, maternal grandfather of Doctor Steele, likewise gave valiant service as a soldier in the war between the states. Doctor Steele has one brother and one sister: S. E. is a farmer on Tug River, and Eliza is the wife of Scott Browning, a merchant at Meador.

Doctor Steele is indebted to the public schools for his early education, and at the age of seventeen years he became a teacher in a rural district in Mingo County. He continued teaching four years, and in the meanwhile substantially advanced his own education through the medium of private study and attending select schools during the summer vacations. In 1900 he entered the medical department of the University of Nashville, Tennessee, and in this institution he was graduated in 1904, with the degree of Doctor of Medicine. For a year thereafter he served as an interne in the City Hospital of Nash, Kentucky, and thus fortified himself further by valuable clinical experience. He has since taken effective post-graduate courses in the Hospital College at Louisville, the celebrated New York Polyclinic, as well as in the New York Post-Graduate Medical College. He has availed himself also of the clinics of the great Mayo Brothers Hospital at Rochester, Minnesota, and those of leading hospitals in the City of Chicago.

In 1906 Doctor Steele established himself in practice at Holden, Logan County, as physician and surgeon for the United States Coal & Oil Company, now known as the Island Creek Coal Company. In the same year he established his residence and professional headquarters at Logan, the county seat, where he has since continued his able and loyal service as a skilled physician and surgeon. In 1915 he became associated with Doctor Farley in rebuilding and thoroughly modernizing the Logan Hospital, which they have since conducted with unqualified success. Doctor Steele is identified with the Logan County Medical Society, the West Virginia State Medical Society and the American Medical Association, and in the Masonic Fraternity he has received the thirty-second degree of the Scottish Rite.