[2] He graduated from Dartmouth College in 1857; in addition to being the class valedictorian, Steele was a member of the Psi Upsilon fraternity and Phi Beta Kappa society.

[3] At the start of the American Civil War, several former members of the Dartmouth Grays were able to receive commissions in the Union Army as a result of their militia experience.

[3] After graduating from Dartmouth, Steele became the principal of an academy in Barton, Vermont, where he also began to study law with attorney John P.

[1] Steele interrupted his legal studies when he became ill; after recovery, he traveled to Cambridge, Massachusetts, intending to enroll at Harvard Law School.

[3][7] In 1865, Luke P. Poland, the chief justice of the Vermont Supreme Court, was appointed to fill the vacancy in the United States Senate caused by the death of Jacob Collamer.

[3] In 1872, Steele was an unsuccessful candidate for the United States House of Representatives; the Republican nomination, then tantamount to election, went to Poland.

[1][3] Steele's sister Lydia (1839–1935) was the wife of Samuel Everett Pingree, who received the Medal of Honor during the American Civil War and served as Governor of Vermont.