Source: From the "History of Sheboygan County - Past and Present" S.J. Clarke Publishing Co., 1912 Chicago

John M. Groeneveldt is successfully engaged in the cultivation of a well improved farm located on section 15 in Lima township, Sheboygan county, Wisconsin. He was born in Kewaunee county, Wisconsin, March 11, 1861, and is a son of John M. and Caroline (Braunegger) Groeneveldt. The former was born in Holland, January 12, 1830, the latter on February 26, 1839, in Baden, near the Rhine, Germany. The paternal grandparents of our subject were Melle T. and Gerdina M. (Ravelkus) Groeneveldt. The former, a native of Holland, was born October 18, 1802, while the birth of the latter occurred on the 14th of October 1809. They celebrated their marriage in 1829, and emigrated to America at an early day , settling first in Milwaukee in April 1847. They continued to live there until the following May, when they removed to Sheboygan county where the grandfather purchased eighty acres of land located on section 36 in Lima township. This land was covered with virgin forest and was purchased by the grandfather for a dollar and a quarter per acre. On that property he established his home, building first a log house and barn, and there continued to live for twelve or fifteen years, after which time he sold the place and moved to Lima township, at which place he lived for several years, and then took up his abode in Oostburg, where his death occurred on December 13, 1885, at the age of eighty-three years. His wife died in Lima township in 1848.

John M. Groeneveldt, Sr., the father of our subject, emigrated to America with his parents in 1847 and remained under the parental roof during the early years of his manhood. Some time after attaining his majority he went to Herman township, where he was engaged at work on a farm for a brief period and later worked in Sheboygan township, during which time he cut wood on the lot where now stands the north side Catholic church. He later removed to Lake Superior county, Michigan, where he was engaged in work in the Calumet-Hecla mines for five years. During the years in which he was at work in the mines he made several trips to Sheboygan for the purpose of buying milch cows for his friends and acquaintances living in Kewaunee county. On leaving the mining districts he returned to Lima township and in the spring of 1866 he purchased a farm of eighty acres located on section 15, where the subject of this review now lives. In 1892 the father added by purchase nineteen acres located on section 16, directly across the road from his house, thus giving him a total of ninety-nine acres of tillable farm land. On that property he continued to live until the time of his death , which occurred February 16, 1906, at the age of seventy-six years. He was united in marriage in Kewaunee county on August 1, 1858, to Miss Caroline Braunegger, a daughter of Ignatz and Cescentia Braunegger, both of whom were natives of Germany and who came to America in 1854, locating first in Cleveland, Ohio, where They continued to reside for a number of years, after which they moved to Kewaunee county, Wisconsin and later settled in Manitowoc county, Wisconsin, where the father died in 1878 and the mother in 1880. Mrs. Caroline (Braunegger) Groeneveldt passed away on the home farm in Lima township, June 15, 1919. She was the mother of nine children, as follows: Melle; John M., of this review; Mary, the wife of Peter Kampmann, of Oostburg; Henry, who lives with his brother John; Crescentia, the wife of George Miley, of whom more extended mention is made on another page of this work; Gertrude, the wife of John Walsh, of Lima township; Caroline, who is the wife of Dan Murphy and resides in Lima township; Rose, the wife of George Eby, of Lima township; and Julia, the wife of Cassius Johnson, of Oshkosh.

John M.. Groeneveldt, Jr., was reared in his parents' home and received his elementary education in the district schools of Lima Center, Wisconsin. He remained under the parental roof and was engaged in work for his father until he was twenty-one years of age. He then went to Sheboygan, where he learned the druggist business, which he followed for few months only and then returned to his home and spent one winter in the lumbering camps of Clark county, Wisconsin. For four seasons afterward he worked with a threshing crew in the community in which he was reared. In 1894 he rented the home farm, on which he was engaged in general farming as a renter until 1910, at which time his father's estate passed through probate court and the subject of this review bought the interest of the heirs in the property, thereby coming into possession as owner of the old homestead. On that property he has since continued to reside and has been continuously engaged in agricultural pursuits, making a specialty of dairy farming.

Mr. Groeneveldt was united in marriage on June 19, 1894, at St. Patrick's church at Adell, Sherman township, to Miss Mary Mulvey, a daughter of Frank and Bridget (Miley) Mulvey. Her parents were among the early pioneers of Lima township and died many years ago. Mrs. Groeneveldt died March 28, 1895.

John M. Groeneveldt is affiliated with the democratic party and for the past five years has been assessor of Lima township and for twelve years has been the treasurer of the school district in which he lives. He is a member of the St. Rose Catholic church. Mr. Groeneveldt is one of the enterprising men of Lima township and is known among his friends and associates to be a man of strict integrity of character and is esteemed as one of the worthy and useful citizens of his part of the state.