No resident of the Ottawa County Poor Farm has been more recorded or written about than J. Steel. Admitted in 1907, he had been in an accident and couldn’t remember who he was or where he came from. From the records, the project team thought that he was around twenty-years-old when he entered the Poor Farm. He stayed at the Poor Farm until his death in 1971, and could have been in his nineties at the time of his death. There is, however, a different account. According to the Poor Farm staff’s guess, Steel was born in 1863, and was approximately forty-four-years-old when he was admitted. If the guess is accurate, at the time of his death, Steel would have been the oldest man in Michigan. 

The mystery of J. Steel was also supposedly solved. An article about Steel was read by a nearby man, named M. Eaton, who thought the amnesic-looking Steel looked somewhat like his long-lost uncle, M. Rutty, for whom he had been named. The two were able to meet, and Steel was reported to have recognized a childhood nickname as well as a couple of other personal details, concluding for those around them that Steel was M. Rutty. Despite the chance discovery, Steel continued to reside at the poor farm, though he received visitors from the Rutty family. On his presumed 110th birthday Steel received letters from then Governor of Michigan, Bill Milliken, and then President of the United States, Richard Nixon.

Steel, without a doubt, lived at the poor farm from 1907 to 1971, a total of sixty-four years. His tenure at the poor farm speaks to the care given to him. He was able to work and live, as well as receive medical care adequate enough to keep him around until around the age of 111.

Sources:
Ottawa County infirmary records of inmates: October 1, 1940 and thereafter, recorded by Irene Vander Meulen Reidsma, Herrick District Library
Infirmary Register of Inmates, 1951-1976, Box #2 H03-1513, Joint Archives of Holland
Ottawa County Family Independence Agency, Correspondence, J. Steel 110th Birthday, 1970, Box #1 H03-1513, Joint Archives of Holland
Marjorie Viveen. "Ticket to the Poor Farm." The Joint Archives Quarterly, Vol. 26 No. 3 (Fall 2016: Holland, MI). Pgs. 4-5.