Steele, James William, writer, was horn at Grandview, Edgar county, ill., Nov. 9, 1840. His parents removed to Topeka, Kan., some time during his childhood. In 1860 he went to Waveland, Ind., to complete his education, and the next spring joined the army with the rest of his class and served during the entire war, receiving two dangerous wounds and returning to Topeka with a commission as lieutenant in 1865. He took up the study of law, became a partner of Thomas Ryan, and in 1866 married Augusta Butterfield, of Topeka; spent some time in New Mexico and Arizona as captain of cavalry in the United States army; was one of the founders of the Kansas Magazine in 1871, of which he became editor in 1873; was United States consul at Mantanzas, Cuba, from 1874 to 1877, and was editor of The Earth (Santa Fe magazine) at the time of his death, which occurred in Chicago, on Oct. 11, 1905. He was the author of Sons of the Border, 1874; Cuban Sketches, 1877; Frontier Army Sketches, 1882; To Mexico by Palace Car, 1884; and numerous magazine articles, many of which were signed "Deane Monahan."