W. R. Ansdell is one of the oldest residents of Cloud County and one of the most prominent citizens in and around Jamestown. He is a pioneer homesteader there and had filled many offices of trust and responsibility.
He was born in the State of Wisconsin in 1849 and was reared and educated there. In 1870 he came with his father, F. T. S. Ansdell, and four other children to Kansas, and they all settled in the vicinity of the present Jamestown. W. R. Ansdell being then twenty-one years of age was entitled to take up a homestead, and his father also acquired a quarter section. These two tracts were brought to a high degree of agricultural perfection, and Mr. W. R. Ansdell still resided on his old place and for forty-five years had grown the crops adapted to that section. His prosperity as a farmer is measured by the splendid place of 240 acres which he now owned and which is highly cultivated and improved with excellent buildings and other equipment.
In 1878 the Village of Jamestown was established and the first postoffice opened there. F. T. S. Ansdell was the third to hold the office of postmaster, and later W. R. Ansdell was given the duties of supervising the distribution of mail and was the ninth postmaster in order of appointment. For two years he also filled the office of justice of the peace and was trustee and treasurer of the township. Every public duty had been performed with the efficiency which had characterized his private conduct of business, and the esteem of his fellow men is a part of his successful record. Mr. Ansdell is a member of the Masonic Order, belongs to the Mystic Shrine, is also an Odd Fellow and his sons are Masons.
In 1884 he married Miss Ida E. Prince. Five children were born to their marriage, and the four now living are: Richard, a postal clerk, Fred, a farmer; George, who is a graduate of the agricultural college at Manhattan and is now applying his theoretical knowledge to the practice of farming; and Margaret.