Editing Steele, Missouri (section)

==History==
The Steele post office was in operation from 1896 to 2017.<ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.postalhistory.com/postoffices.asp?task=display&state=MO&county=Pemiscott | title=Post Offices| publisher=Jim Forte Postal History | access-date=29 November 2016}}</ref> The community was named for Leonidas Lucilius Steele, an early settler who came to Pemiscot County in 1874 and moved to Steele in 1885, where he operated a hotel and mercantile business.<ref>{{Cite news |date=November 22, 1907 |title=Capt. L.L. Steele Dead |work=The Pemiscot Press |publication-place=Caruthersville, Missouri |url=https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/9281150/leonidas-lucilius-steele }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last=Hamlett |first=Mayme L. |title=Place Names Of Six Southeast Counties Of Missouri |url=http://shsmo.org/manuscripts/ramsay/ramsay_pemiscot.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160624071957/http://shsmo.org/manuscripts/ramsay/ramsay_pemiscot.html |archive-date=June 24, 2016 |access-date=November 29, 2016 |website=The State Historical Society of Missouri }}</ref> The city's early growth was due to it being the only way for people and freight to cross the Little River Swamp to reach [[Cottonwood Point, Missouri|Cottonwood Point]] and the [[Mississippi River]]. The community was a point along the [[St. Louis–San Francisco Railway]]. In 1912, Steele contained seven general stores, three cotton gins, a sawmill and a gristmill.<ref>{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=G-AlAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA382 | title=History of Southeast Missouri: A Narrative Account of Its Historical Progress, Its People and Its Principal Interests, Volume 1 | publisher=Lewis Publishing Company | year=1912 | pages=382}}</ref>

In 1942, an auxiliary field was constructed by the [[United States Army|US Army]] northwest of the city. This was one of four auxiliary fields that served [[Blytheville Air Force Base|Blytheville Army Airfield]], a [[North American B-25 Mitchell|B-25]] pilot training school in [[Blytheville, Arkansas|Blytheville]], [[Arkansas]].<ref>{{Cite web |last=Hartley |first=Jillian |title=Eaker Air Force Base |url=https://encyclopediaofarkansas.net/entries/eaker-air-force-base-2795/ |access-date=2023-12-13 |website=Encyclopedia of Arkansas |language=en-US}}</ref> In August 1946, the Blytheville base and its auxiliary facilities (including the field at Steele) were declared surplus property. Local James K. Burton obtained a fiver year lease on the field to operate a flying school on the property.<ref>{{Cite news |date=1946-08-21 |title=BAAF declared surplus by US Military |pages=11 |work=The Courier News |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-courier-news-baaf-declared-surplus-b/102973415/ |access-date=2023-12-13}}</ref>