Friday, June 29, 2007

E. Steel, Part II (American Confederates)

Returning to my previous E. Steel post, I wish to thank Thom Hiers of Charleston, South Carolina for bringing some historical documents to my attention. It was on the basis of one his references, Confederados em Santarém -saga americana na amazônia, 1987, by Norma Guilhon, that I came by the name of the George Steel, who was in the original group of American Confederates to come to Santarém in 1867. Later, I reconfirmed that fact with another document I found on the internet, Registros de nomes de famílias que entraram no território brasileiro entre 1865 e 1885, by Betty Antunes de Oliveira of the organization, Fraternidade Descendência Americana. One single name appears, George Steele, so it seems that he didn't bring any family members to Brazil. Norma Guidon found some reference to a 1892 document, which mentions "Mr. George Steel, his wife and son, (João Douglas Steele)..." Interesting that at the time of her research, the name Steele didn't appear on public records anymore. Guidon assumed that the family didn't remain in Santarém. I'll be digging up new information on the Steele family in the next few days.

The palm trunk vase in the attached image was created by E. Steel in recent weeks. On one of his last visits, he told me that the mussandra plant needed to be moved to a cooler environment. I took it out to Bosque Santa Lúcia and it's doing much better there.

1 comment:

GingerV said...

once again I have enjoyed your tale. I forwarded your blog to many friends in the states - well done. gingerv