Alanson Steere, a manufacturer, is distinctively one of the self-made men of the county His life, covering a period of over 80 years, has been One of incessant activity and usefulness. He was born in the town of Glocester, this county, September 2nd, 1810, and from the sixteenth year of his age has been engaged in manufacturing of some kind. His education was limited to the curriculum of studies of our district .schools, and from the district school house he entered immediately upon the active pursuits of life. In the middle of April. 1826, he began work with his father, Hosea Steere, at building mills, and worked on mills at several places in Rhode Island and Connecticut till 1838. Mr. Hosea Steere was born in July, 1784. He was a carpenter and millwright. In 1840 he retired from mill work to his farm, where he died in April, 1860, in the 82nd year of his age. 

In 1838, he and his brother Otis Steere purchased the saw mill property' at Kent Corners, fitted it up with the necessary machinery and spun cotton yarns, continuing there till 1847, when they sold out to Ralph & Field. In 1847 he went to Phenix, R. I., as the superintendent of a mill, but at the expiration of one year he and his brother rented the Brown Mill, in Johnston, and commenced the manufacture of cotton cloth. They remained here about four years and a half, when they began operating the mills now owned by Henry White, then belonging to Samuel Hunt, at Chepachet. They carried on business at this point quite successfully till 1856, when arrangements were made with Thomas P. Remington and Isaac Saunders for a lease of the mills now owned by him and his son at Rockland. The Honorable W. O. Arnold, present member of congress, worked for Mr. Steere in his mills at Chepachet. Mr. Steere has now been at the head of the firm at Rockland for 34 years, and under his management there the business has doubled as to the number of looms operated and hands employed. In addition to this, a mill has been built and in various ways the property improved.

Mr. Steere has also been a very active man in political work. His first vote for president was cast for William Henry Harrison in 1840, and since then for every republican candidate for presidential honors. He was a member of the town council in all, nine years, four years of which time he was chairman of that body. In 1865 he was elected state senator and held that office till 1869. While representing the people in this capacity he prepared a petition to the legislature for a charter for a railroad, to run from Providence through the towns of Scituate, Foster and west to Springfield, Mass., and succeeded in getting the necessary legislative enactments passed relative to it. For 20 years since that time he has persistently advocated this enterprise, until now he has the satisfaction of seeing his efforts taking a more substantial form-as the road will undoubtedly be built in the near future. Mr. Steere has several times been sent as a delegate to the various state conventions, and in 1872 he was sent as a delegate to the national convention at Philadelphia, at which General Grant was nominated for the second term. Mr. Steere was married February 14th, 1886, to Julia, daughter of Jeremiah and Freelove Westcott of Coventry. .She died April 8th, 1877. One daughter and two sons were born to this union. Byron L., the youngest, is a member of the firm of A. Steere & Son. Hiram, the other son, died June 20th, 1872. Mr. Steere is a, public spirited man, and has donated freely of his means toward the up building of our public institutions. He has always taken an active part in temperance work. He was a member of the Temple of Honor, and of the Sons of Temperance, and for the last 40 years has advocated the principles of temperance. He became a member of the Hamilton Lodge, No. 15, in 18G6, and was master of that Lodge one year, and treasurer 23 years. He was a charter member of the Scituate Royal Arch Chapter, No. 8, organized in 1867, and has been treasurer of this Chapter from its beginning to the present time.

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