Stephen Collins Foster was born near Pittsburgh in 1826, the ninth of ten children in a poor family. As a mostly self-taught composer, Foster wrote songs that were immensely popular, though due to inadequate copyright laws he never saw much profit. He died impoverished in New York City at the age of 38.

Stephen Foster’s brothers lived in Allegheny County and Grove City in Pennsylvania and Detroit, Michigan. In the years after Foster’s death the family – brother, sister-in-law, and niece, among others – apparently tried to hold on to original sheet music and letters with varying success.

Chicago railroad president and steel manufacturer. Steele was born in 1851 and settled in Chicago in 1879, where he developed an iron business. He organized the American Bridge Works, the American Bridge Company, and the Standard Forging Company, the largest maker of locomotive axles, and became the president of several railroads. Steele was interested in genealogy and antiquarian and historical research, and amassed one of the country’s largest autograph and hymnal collections, which included the manuscripts of many famous music composers.

Frederick Morgan Steele died in Highland Park, Illinois in 1932.