Van (von) Steen, a Mennonite family of Dutch descent found in West Prussia, Germany, and particularly in Danzig from at least 1678. To this family belonged the Danzig elder Hans von Steen. Willem van Steen, born 1698, was expelled from the Tilsit Lowlands, East Prussia, in 1724, and moved to Dannenberg, from where he was driven away in 1732. With a number of other families he then moved to the Netherlands, living at Wageningen in 1733-44, where the Dutch Mennonite Committee of Foreign Needs had established a settlement for twelve East Prussian Mennonite families. Willem van Steen, who administered the houses and the properties of these colonists at Wageningen, earned his living by weaving linen. After all his compatriots had gradually returned to Prussia, Willem van Steen also returned (1744). At Ershorst in the Prussian district of Schardau he wrote two letters to the Committee in Amsterdam.

Bibliography

Adapted by permission of Herald Press, Harrisonburg, Virginia, and Waterloo, Ontario, from Mennonite Encyclopedia, Vol. 4, p. 623. All rights reserved. For information on ordering the encyclopedia visit the Herald Press website.

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