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JOHN H. ROZEMA was prominently identified for a number of years with the educational life of Benton county, and he is now serving as the cashier of the Farmers Savings Bank of Keystone. He was born in Ottawa county, Michigan, September 17, 1866, to the marriage union of Henry and Zwaantje (Nyenhuis), Rozema, both of whom were born in Holland, the father in 1822 and the mother in 1834. Henry Rozema came from his native Holland to Michigan when about thirty-five years of age, and he died, at Fremont of that state at the advanced age of eighty-one years. Mrs. Rozema was one of the original settlers of the Dutch colony that located in Ottawa county, Michigan, in 1846. They settled amid the dense timber there, and had to cut down the trees to make room for their little log cabin homes. She is still living at Fremont.
John H. Rozema, one of their nine children, six of whom are living, was reared as a farmer lad, attending first the district schools, then Hope College at Holland, Michigan, and entering the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor he graduated from its law department in 1893. During the year following his graduation he taught school in Michigan and coming to Benton county in 1894 he taught at different points here until in 1901 he took charge of the Keystone school, a position he continued to fill until in March of 1906 he retired from educational work to become the cashier of the Farmers Savings Bank of Keystone. He is a stockholder in the Keystone Mercantile Company, and is serving as a justice of the peace.
On the 25th of September, 1909, Mr. Rozema married Miss Mae Stedman, who was born in Vinton, Iowa, a daughter of E. B. and Lucy Stedman. Mr. Rozema is a member of Keystone Lodge, No. 135, I. O. 0. F., of Hope Lodge, No. 375, A. F. & A. M., at Belle Plaine, and in politics he has been a life-long Democrat, always taking an active part in political work, but always favoring the best man regardless of party ties.
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