Steel formed a partnership in the book and stationary business with Joseph K. Gill to operate Gill & Steel, a predecessor to the J. K. Gill Company, in 1870 [REF].
In the meantime he was a special agent for the United States Post Office Department (predecessor to the United States Postal Service) from 1877 to 1879, and from that year to 1880 as a deputy collector at for Customs at the city's harbor [REF].