JOHN STEGEMAN

John Stegeman, an enterprising general agriculturist and well-known citizen, and for the past three years an active member of the School Board of Holland Township, Ottawa County, Mich., is a native of the Wolverine State and was born on the same farm where he now resides April 24, 1859. His parents, Manus and Cornelia (Van Delsare) Stegeman, were both natives of Europe. The paternal grandfather, James Stegeman, lived in the province of Overyssel, in the Netherlands. He owned and cultivated a farm and reared a large family of sons and daughters, of whom the father of john Stegeman was the only one who ever came to the United States. The father remained with his parents until about thirty years of age. He received a good common-school education and learned the carpenter;s trade, serving an apprenticeship of three years. He ambitiously emigrated to the United States in 1847, and reached port in safety journeyed at once to Holland, Mich., having only money enough to get here. Working at his trade in Holland, and for two years employed at Old Landing, on Black River, Mannes Stegeman accumulated a little money, which he wisely invested in forty acres of land in southwestern Holland Township. Later, selling his first purchase, he bought where our subject now lives .The father married about two years after making his residence in Michigan Miss Alice Ensing, who died six months after her wedding. Sometime later were married Mannus Stegeman and Cornelia Van Delaare, the daughter of Peter A. and Mary Van Del;aare. Unto the union of the parents were born seven children, all of whom are living: Jane, who married Benjamin Kockkock (Koekkoek); Peter; James; Rev. Abraham, an eloquent preacher of the Reformed Church of North Holland; John; Egbertdina, wife of Gerrit Looman; and Rev. William, of Grand View, S. Dak. William is a graduate of Hope College, and Abraham and William both graduated from New Brunswick (N. J. ) College. The father purchased eighty-five acres of land, all in the woods, and lived to see it improved and put under fine cultivation. He was a devout member of the Reformed Church of Holland, and, politically was a Democrat. For ten years an efficient member of the School Board, Mannes Stegeman identifies with the vital interests of his American home. Born in 1819, he survived until May 9, 1889, and at three-score years and ten passed peacefully away, mourned as a public loss. The mother, born in 1826, yet survives and enjoys fairly good health.

The education of our subject was received in the common schools of his immediate neighborhood, and he has made his life-time home upon the old farm, cultivating the fertile acres bought by his father so many years ago. Mr. Stegeman married, in 1885, Hannah Kamps, the daughter of Geert and Jacobje (Neymier) Kamps. The estimable wife of our subject was likewise born in Holland Township, Ottawa County, her parents emigrated from the Netherlands to Holland, Mich., a few years later than the father of Mr. Stegemen. Four sons have brightened the pleasant home: Manley, Gebhard, Herman, James and Paul.

Mr. and Mrs. Stegeman are foremost in good work, and our subject is a valued member of the reformed Church at Zeeland. Politically a Democrat, Mr. Stegeman takes a deep interest in both local and national issues, and, young and enterprising, occupies a leading place in the home councils of the party, and, widely known, commands high regard of the community amid which his busy years of usefulness are passed.