21 Aug. 1829–26 Feb. 1907
See also: Mangum Terrace
As a farmer Mangum was a student and an advocate of progressive agricultural techniques. In particular, he found success in the practice of and fame in the promotion of terracing as a form of erosion control. In 1885, on his farm two miles west of Wake Forest, Mangum constructed the first examples of what became known as the "Mangum terrace." Two factors had pushed him to this development. The first was the wasted land necessary for the ditches then used in the southern Piedmont to control water runoff from farmlands. The second was the advent of farm machinery that could not be used efficiently on ditched land. Consequently, Mangum constructed his "terraces" as
Initially, the news of Mangum's method of erosion control spread by word of mouth. Within a decade, however, his terraces were being publicized
by the Agricultural Experiment Station of the North Carolina College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts. By 1912 the Mangum terrace had gained the support of the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Thereafter it was so widely used that both the second and third editions of Webster's International Dictionary (1934 and 1961) carried "Mangum terrace" as an entry.
In 1856 Mangum married Mary Thomas Price, and they became the parents of six children. In his politics Mangum was a Whig before the Civil War and a Democrat afterwards. He was a member of the Episcopal church. On his death he was buried in the family cemetery on his farm. This cemetery is now located on the Horsecreek Golf Course on U.S. Highway 1 west of Wake Forest.