Benton Steele (1866–1943) was one of the most influential promoters, designers, and builders of round barns in North American history. With only an eighth-grade education, Steele rose from humble beginnings in rural Indiana to become a self-taught architect, draftsman, builder, engineer, and prolific writer whose ideas helped launch the true-circular barn movement across the United States and Canada. Through his architectural drawings, agricultural articles, and collaborations with organizations such as the University of Illinois, Louden Machinery Company, Sears, Roebuck and Company, and Gordon-Van Tine, he brought the round barn concept into the mainstream of American agriculture. Although the lack of a formal degree often prevented him from receiving the professional recognition he deserved, Steele continually reinvented himself throughout a remarkable fifty-year career that included building barns, courthouses, grain elevators, schools, libraries, and public institutions. More than a story of architecture, this is the story of a self-made man whose intelligence, perseverance, and character enabled him to move comfortably among governors, professors, wealthy landowners, and common laborers alike. Remembered as much for the people he touched as for the buildings he created, Benton Steele left behind a lasting legacy in rural architecture and agricultural history.