Frances Evaline Steele

The following information was found on Family Search.org: Frances Evaline Alexander - by her granddaughter Chloe Steele Callister - Frances Evaline Alexander was baptized by the prophet (of the LDS Church) Joseph Smith. Her father, Horace M. Alexander, was in the Mormon Battalion which was called to Mexico from Nauvoo (Illinois), just as the Mormons were ready to leave (Illinois and Iowa) for Utah. He was released from service in (Los Angeles) California.

The Mormons were driven out of their home in Nauvoo and her mother took cold. Her mother, Nancy Reeder Walker Alexander, died January 28, 1847, at Winter Quarters (Nebraska). Frances Evaline and her two sisters came across the plains with the Amasa Lyman Company in 1848.

NOTE: She was cared for by her maternal aunt and uncle, Evaline Walker Rollins and James Henry Rollins, as well as a servant girl, Catherine Houston, who had worked in her parents household before her father left to join the Mormon Battalion and her mother died shortly after giving birth to her 5th child, a son, Horace Martin Alexander, Jr. The baby also died and was buried in the same grave with his mother according to a life sketch of James Henry Rollins.

After her father was released from the Mormon Battalion in California, he headed for Salt Lake City, since he knew his brother-in-law, James Henry Rollins and his family were headed there. Horace did not know of his wife's passing until he reached Utah and learned about it then. He later married Catherine Houston, the servant girl who had previously worked in his household in Nauvoo.

Frances Evaline Alexander married Jesse Pierce Steele October 4, 1853, in Salt Lake City, Utah. They had 11 children between 1854 and 1879. Jesse was a polygamist, and married a plural wife, Mary Ann Sorensen on May 26, 1876, in Salt Lake City. She was an immigrant from Denmark. They had at least five children. Jesse married his third wife, Emma M. Buettner on October 14, 1908, in Manti, Utah. They had one daughter, Jessie in 1913. There is a photo of Jessie Buettner Steele on her mother's Geni profile page taken in 1919 when she was 6 years old and her father was 91 years old. There is another photo of Jessie and her mother on Jessie's Geni profile page, taken when she was about 10 years old. Emma was the daughter of a German father, and her mother was born in Illinois. Jesse died the following year in 1920 and was buried in the Evergreen Cemetery in Springville, Utah.

Frances Evaline Alexander Steele passed away November 12, 1909, and was buried in the Kirtland Cemetery in Kirtland, New Mexico. She may have gone to live in New Mexico, since some of her children were living there. Her daughter Cora Jensine Steele, who died at age 10 in 1889, was also buried there, as was her daughter, Mary Jane Steele Taylor, who died in 1905, and daughter Sarah Catherine Steele Biggs, who died in 1939. Jesse's second wife, Mary Ann Sorensen Steele passed away September 24, 1941, in Whittier, Los Angeles County, California. She may be buried in the Inglewood Park Cemetery or perhaps the Rose Hills Memorial Cemetery in Whittier. Jesse's third wife, Emma Margaretha Buettner Steele died in Springville, Utah, and was buried in the Evergreen Cemetery.