History of Atchison County, by Sheffield Ingalls,
(Lawrence, KS: Standard Publishing Company, 1916)
pp. 850 - 853

WILLIAM MANGELSDORF*

The name of Mangelsdorf is indelibly linked with the story of the commercial development of northeast Kansas and the Middle West, and the Mangelsdorf family is one of the most respected and substantial of Atchison, Kansas. The review of the life of William Mangelsdorf, deceased, begins across the Atlantic in the Fatherland of Germany, where he was born and spent part of his youth, coming to America with his parents when eleven years of age. William not only achieved a wonderful success in business and accumulated wealth, but he assisted in making the family name known and respected throughout a great extent of territory, wherever the output of the great seed house founded by him and his brother, August, carried its business. He left behind him a monument for business integrity and upright methods which has made his name universally respected and honored for years to come.

William Mangelsdorf was born in Arnim, Prussia, February 15, 1846, a son of Joachim Christoph and Anna Dorothea Mangelsdorf. Joachim Christoph Mangelsdorf died in Germany in 1850 and his widow married Andreas Stehwien, who with the family emigrated from their native land in I857 and settled on a farm in Gasconade County, Missouri. In 1868 the family removed to Douglas County, Kansas, where they resided until the mother's demise, after which Mr. Stehwien came to Atchison to spend the remainder of his days with his children. Five children were born to Joachim Christoph and Anna Dorothea Mangelsdorf: Mrs. Anna Buhman, of Atchison, Kan.; Henry, in New Mexico; Mrs. Dorothy Beurman, Lakeview, Douglas County, Kansas; William, with whom this review is directly concerned; and August, residing in Atchison.