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.