He was the president of Curtis Manufacturing Co., a foundry and machine shop, and built Casa del Herrero.

Steedman attended the Manual Training School and Washington University in St. Louis,[2] and then graduated magna cum laude from Harvard in 1892.

[3] He became president of the family pneumatic machinery business, Curtis Manufacturing Company, in 1903.

Steedman married Carrie Robb Howard in 1903, and their two daughters, Katherine and Medora, were born respectively in 1904 and 1909.

[4] In the 1920s he and his wife built Casa del Herrero in California as a summer home, first moving into the house on the day of the 1925 Santa Barbara earthquake.