- Walter Leak Steele
Walter Leak Steele (
18 April 1823 -16 October 1891 ) was a U.S. Congressman fromNorth Carolina between 1877 and 1881.Born at near Rockingham in
Richmond County, North Carolina , Steele attended common schools near his home and thenRandolph-Macon College inAshland, Virginia ,Wake Forest College , and finally theUniversity of North Carolina at Chapel Hill , graduating in 1844.Steele was elected to two-years terms in the
North Carolina House of Commons in 1846, 1848, 1850, and 1854; he rose to theNorth Carolina Senate , serving there between 1852 and 1858, and in 1852, he was named as a trustee of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, a post he held until his death.A delegate to the 1860
Democratic National Convention s in Charleston andBaltimore , Steele chaired the 1861 state convention which passed the ordinance of secession at the beginning of theAmerican Civil War . Steele studied law and was admitted to the bar in 1865 and practiced law in his hometown of Rockingham.Steele was elected to the 45th and 46th U.S. Congress, serving from
March 4 ,1877 toMarch 3 ,1881 . He declined to run again in 1880 and returned to cotton manufacturing and banking.Walter L. Steele died in
Baltimore, Maryland in 1891 and is buried in Leak Cemetery near Rockingham, North Carolina.
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