Minnie A. Steele

Minnie A. Steele was an early twentieth-century gospel songwriter whose surviving biographical record is unusually sparse. The 1908 hymnal Songs of Mounting Up credits the text of My Burdens Rolled Away to “M. A. S.” and its music to “Mrs. Minnie A. Steele,” providing direct early evidence that she wrote both words and tune. Hymnary likewise attributes the text and melody to Minnie A. Steele and dates both to 1907, although the earliest printing located for this verification is the 1908 Cincinnati collection.

Hymnary’s contributor authority currently supplies no birth date, death date, denominational affiliation, education, or ministry appointments for Steele. It does, however, index a small body of texts under her name, including All on the altar I have laid, Come, get acquainted with Jesus your Lord, There’s a song within my heart because of Jesus, and several other gospel songs. That record places her securely within the evangelical gospel-song culture of the early twentieth century without establishing a specific church tradition.

Her best-documented song, My Burdens Rolled Away, circulated widely in later gospel hymnals and retained her authorship and compositional credit. Because the surviving documentation is limited, further claims about Steele’s family, conversion, church membership, or the circumstances in which she wrote the song would be speculative and are best left unstated.