Katharine Steel

Katharine Steel lived in on the edge of Euro-American settlement in the Colony of South Carolina.

[1] Katharine Fisher was born in Pennsylvania about 1725 of Scottish-Irish ancestry, whose family had immigrated to the colonies from Ulster.

[4] She married Thomas Steel, who also descends from Scottish-Irish people from Ulster,[3] in 1745 and they lived in Pennsylvania.

[6] The Steel family moved to the wilderness of the Province of South Carolina, living about one mile from the Catawba River, along Fishing Creek.

[8] Sometimes the men left the stronghold, called Steel's Fort, to maintain their crops or fight Native Americans.

[4] She had a calming influence that helped the women and children wait out the time until they could return to their homes.

[3][5] During those times, she left her baby with Robert Brown who lived about 12 miles (19 km) to the north.

They fought together at Fort Moultrie (near Charleston, South Carolina) and further battles against the British during the Revolutionary War.

[3] Considered a heroine of the Revolutionary War, a chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution was named after her in 1906.