Cedar Grove | Wisconsin Historical Society

Historical Essay

Cedar Grove

Cedar Grove | Wisconsin Historical Society

300 block of Main St., Cedar Grove, Sheboygan County 

In 1847 Reverend Pieter Zonne led a group of Netherlanders, originally from the Gelderland province, to this area where a few other Dutch immigrant families had recently settled. Enticed by Zonne's energetic advertisements that "there is plenty of everything and we have sold more than $1,000 worth of fattened cattle," many additional Dutch immigrants came to the "Zonne Settlement," later named Cedar Grove. Within five years, the settlers had systematically cleared vast tracts of the forested land and more than 200 family farms were in operation.

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[Source: McBride, Sarah Davis. History Just Ahead (Madison:WHS, 1999).]