Glendale, California Biographies

        Dr. C. Stuart Steelman, who was the first oculist to establish himself in Glendale and devote all of his time to that profession, was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, August 7, 1886, a son of Edgar and Julia (Stuart) Steelman. His father was a native of Cincinnati, where he was a prominent veterinarian for many years, and his mother was born in New York State. The Steelmans are an old Yankee family of English ancestry. The Stuarts are Holland Dutch and have been in America since before the Revolutionary War. William Stuart, grandfather of Dr. Steelman, was an inventor of note and a maker of violins. Some of his inventions pertained to the modern typewriter of today.

        Dr. Steelman attended the grammar and high schools of Cincinnati. In 1901, he came to Los Angeles with his parents and soon thereafter was employed as a decorator by Barker Brothers, and later by Pease Brothers. In 1891, his father died and in 1902, his mother married Dr. W. T. Nichols, a pioneer of Glendale, optician of Los Angeles. At the instance of his stepfather, Dr. Steelman attended and graduated from the Southern California College of Optometry, and in 1915 opened an office in his residence in Glendale where he practiced his profession until 1917, then opening a downtown branch in Burbank. His patients in Glendale have reached a grand total of nearly 7,000 in the five years of his professional career.

        He is a Knight Templar Mason, an Elk and belongs to the Chamber of Commerce, the Sunset Country Club, and the Southern California Optometrists’ Association.

        In Los Angeles on March 5, 1907, Dr. Steelman married Nell Bostrom. They became the parents of three children: Stuart Paul, Constance Laura, and Margaret Florence. Mrs. Steelman passed away in 1917. On October 9, 1921, Dr. Steelman married Olive Brooks, of Los Angeles, and they have a baby girl, Gwendolyn May. The family home is at 321 West Milford Street.