From his obituary as reported in Cambridge City Tribune | Cambridge City, Indiana | Thursday, May 22, 1879 | Page 3:
He died in Dublin on Saturday evening, May 17, 1879, aged 77 years, 5 months and 20 days. He was born in Rockingham County, Virginia; and lived in that State till 1840, when with his family he removed to Wayne County, Indiana where he has lived ever since. (records show he did not move from VA until 1849)

Obituary of John W. Steffey
Published in The Musical Million by Wm. E. Chute, May 1881 Vol. 12, #5, p. 66
Jno. W Steffey was born November 27the, 1801 on the south bank of the north fork of the Shenandoah River, near Plains Mills, three miles west of New Market, Shenandoah county, Va. His parents lived chiefly in Rockingham county. John W. was one of ten children. He was brought up to the boot and shoemaker trade and farming. His education was limited, and much of it he obtained by the study of books privately. In 1822 he attended school at New Market for three months, walking three and a half miles to and from that place every day. The teacher was Adam Douglas, an Irishman, a good and qualified teacher in the Academy. Music was a natural and peculiar gift in him, and he taught it for many years in the Shenandoah Valley. The chief books he taught from were “Kentucky Harmony and Supplements,” by Ananias Davis-Carroll and David L. Clayton; Joseph Funk’s “Genuine Church Music,” and “Ives’ Manuel.” He spoke of a music book by Boyd, but forgot the title and date. Chiefly from these books he compiled and published the “Valley Harmonist,” in 1837 or 1838, containing 168 pages, small size, music in three parts, old four notes. An appendix of fifty odd pages was added in 1839 or 1840. In 1845 he published the second edition of the “Valley Harmonist,” 336 pages, most of the tunes anonymous, or without the authors’ names. But he found that music “didn’t pay,” so in 1849 he moved to Indiana and settled on a farm, in or near Dublin, Wayne county, where he had many hardships and afflictions. He was a member of the Lutheran Church, and he was well acquainted with Rev. Paul Henkel, some of whose hymns he had in the “Valley Harmonist.” He married Ann Bowers, daughter of a Pennsylvanian who moved into Virginia in 1815, and who was six years his junior, March 29th, 1825, and they had four sons and five daughters. He died of pneumonia May 17th, 1879, in his 79th year, not without hope unto eternal life in the first resurrection.

From visit to the cemetery no stone remains on his gravesite.