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Samuel Benfield Steele (~1849 - 1919)
Sam Steele was born on a farm a few miles west of present-day Orillia, Ontario to Elmes Yelverton and Anne Maclan Macdonald Steele.1) In 1870, Steele volunteered for a British-Canadian expedition to maintain order at Red River (Manitoba). After the expedition settled at Upper Fort Gary he was promoted to corporal. The battalion was dismantled in 1871 and Steele returned to Ontario. In 1873, Steele received permission to join a new mounted police force for the North-West Territories and he was given the rank of staff constable.2)
When gold was discovered in the Yukon, Steele and Superintendent Aylesworth Bowen Perry were ordered to establish customs posts at the coastal passes and at Bennett Lake. The Yukon contingent reported directly to Clifford Sifton, the federal minister of the Interior, so Steele was able to make up laws and regulations as he saw fit. He required the stampeders to have a minimum quantity of food and supplies – the legendary ‘ton of goods.’3)
In July 1898, Steele took command of all of the NWMP in the Yukon and became a member of the newly formed Territorial Council. He moved from Bennett to Dawson in September. The police tolerated gambling and drinking but it was strictly controlled with establishments closed on Sundays. Steele was well liked in Dawson and well-wishers and the miners presented him with a poke of gold dust when he was transferred out in September 1899.4)