Author: Rev Dr John Warren Steen Jr
William Steen was born in 1749 in Chester County, Pennsylvania, the son of John Steen and Jane Moore. He married Nancy Lusk in 1772 in Union County, South Carolina.
Nancy Agnes Lusk was born in 1753 in Union County, South Carolina, one of ten children born to Robert Lusk and Mary Vance of Augusta County, Virginia. The Lusk family moved to South Carolina in the 1750’s. They owned a plantation and a ferry on the Broad River. Robert and Mary Vance Lusk moved to Kentucky in the 1790’s are buried in the Carrsville Cemetery in Carrsville, Kentucky. Mississippi Reconstruction Governor James Lusk Alcorn is a great-grandson of Robert and Mary Lusk and Nancy Agnes Lusk is his great-aunt.
THE STEEN FAMILY in Europe and America, by The Rev. Moses D. A. Steen, D.D. of Worthington, Ohio, second edition, 1917, Montfort & Company, Cincinnati, Ohio, 740 pages. It is a genealogical historical and biographical record of nearly three hundred years, extending from the seventeenth to the twentieth century.
After an introduction, BOOK ONE begins on page 35. It tells about James Steen and his descendants. BOOK FOUR beginning on page 142 tells about William Steen and his descendants. From page 142:
"William Steen was a farmer by occupation, a soldier in the Revolutionary War, and was wounded and taken prisoner in the battle of Kings Mountain October 7, 1780. He was soon afterward rescued from the British by a band of
American soldiers among whom was Jacob Neely, whose granddaughter, Margaret Ann Neely, afterward married his (William's) grandson, Carroll Jeffries Steen in Rankin, County, Mississippi."
William’s brother, Lieutenant Colonel James Steen, was stabbed to death in the summer of 1781 in Rowan County, North Carolina while endeavoring to arrest a Tory. Colonel Steen was highly respected and honored by South Carolina citizens. The Kings Mountain Battlefield monument of 1910 erroneously shows James Steen as killed at the battle though no testimony shows him present.
Nancy and William Steen had eleven children:
1. John Steen - (1774-1847 m. Margaret Vance)
2. Mary Steen (died in infancy)
3. Elias Steen (1779-1847 m. Elizabeth Smith)
4. James Steen (1781-1843 m. Sarah Collins)
5. William Steen (1783-1846 m. Mary Enochs)
6. Nathaniel Steen (1786-1827 m. Mary Collins)
7. Robert Steen (1787-1837 m. Malony Hollingsworth)
8. Sarah Steen (1790-1859 m. Thomas Enochs)
9. Mary "Polly" Steen (1794-1848 m. Judge John Rumley Enochs)
10. Jane Steen (c.1795-c.1858 m. Levi Noble)
11. Silas Steen (1804-1858 m. Hannah Myers)
About 1810, the Steen family began their move from South Carolina to Mississippi. They stopped for a time in what was Indian Territory (now Carroll County, Tennessee) where William Steen was possibly killed by Indians or died from sickness. After his death, the Steen family, with the exception of John Steen, moved to Mississippi Territory (now Lawrence County, Mississippi), where they resided in 1814.
After the death of his father, John (1774) Steen returned to Union County, South Carolina where he was a planter and died in 1847 at “Steen City”. After the division of his estate, his children settled in Lafayette, Tippah, and Yalobusha Counties, Mississippi in the late 1840’s and early 1850’s. John and Margaret Steen are buried in the Jefferies Family Cemetery near Gaffney, South Carolina.
In 1780, William Steen resided in Union County, South Carolina, whose patriot militia had been commanded by Colonel Thomas Brandon (defeated 08Jun1780). Torn apart and scattered, some of Brandon’s re-organized men joined Colonel James Williams from the Little River District (Laurens/Newberry counties), South Carolina area as they retreated to Hillsborough, North Carolina where his brother John Williams, South Carolina Governor John Rutledge, and defeated General Horatio Gates among others had taken refuge.
Jacob Neely deposed (s7264):
He enlisted again as a volunteer militia man under the same Capt Douglass and his said brother [Thomas Neely] as Lieutenant and in a few days set off under the command of one Col. Williams [James Williams] for South Carolina and was in the battle of Kings Mountain in which the said Col. was killed and soon after said battle he returned home again in company with and in aid of some of his wounded fellow soldiers.
Joseph Neely, Jacob’s brother, also under Captain John Douglas, deposed (s31879)
It was stated that 997 were killed, wounded and taken prisoner by us. Ferguson was killed. Colonel Williams Rec'd a mortal wound and died [the] next morning. This declarant Rec'd a wound and was conveyed home with another wounded from the same County, with two attendants.
Shadrach Gibbs http://revwarapps.org/s10740.pdf deposed:
till in the year 1779 in the month of March he commenced his 3rd Tour of service, as a substitute for William Steen.


Oral family history of the William Steen and Jacob Neely generations of Rankin County Mississippi states that William Steen was wounded and taken prisoner in the battle of Kings Mountain October 7, 1780. He was soon afterward rescued from the British by a band of American soldiers among whom was Jacob Neely.
Nancy Lusk Steen said that when she heard about her husband’s wound she left her dead two year old Mary “Polly” Steen unburied at the fort and rode 40 miles through the night to tend to William. The fort might have been Wofford’s Fort west of Union near Fairforest Creek.
Nancy Lusk Steen took William's red bandanna and steeped it in herbs. Then she pushed it into the wound and pulled it through to the other side. This killed the infection. He survived but was never as strong again. Multiple grandchildren wrote of seeing the bandanna which Nancy kept in a chest with some coins. She told them the stories.

William Steen is not recognized on the 1910 battlefield obelisk plaque.
The statements are obviously inaccurate. The British (actually American loyalist Tories) in the Battle of Kings Mountain (BKM) were completely killed or captured. They had no prisoners. The patriots at BKM were not a band, but a force sufficient to wipe out the 1125 Tories. How might we reconcile this account of Steen from Union County, South Carolina and Neely from Person (then Caswell or Orange) County, North Carolina?
Colonel James Williams at BKM commanded a mixture of militia with units from both remnants of Colonel Thomas Brandon’s defeated Union County whigs and a newly recruited company under Captain John Douglass from Roxboro, North Carolina. Jacob Neely deposed under oath that he was part of the company under Captain Douglass. One scenario would be that Steen fell during the first charge and was captured by Patrick Ferguson’s loyalists. Then at the end of the battle, Douglass’ Roxboro company secured his release.
Another likelihood is that Steen was taken to a patriot home in the Union or York District area. A possibility would be the Wells or Patterson cabins north of the battlefield where the wounded were known to have stayed. Another possibility is the barracks which Colonel Edward Lacey had constructed to shelter the wounded (John Copeland S30966). Note that somebody was dispatched to notify Nancy Steen that her husband was wounded and where he was taken so that she could find him.
Use the OVT tab, Kings Mountain link to see the New Acquisition District map.
Union is due south of Gaffney.
Wofford’s Fort was west of Union, east of Fairforest Creek.