[1] Groenendaal was born in Heerewaarden, Netherlands, and was one of the many Dutch immigrants who settled in South Africa around the middle of the nineteenth century.
He was a schoolteacher by training, but quickly became an influential politician, first in the negotiations about the formation of the Orange Free State, and afterwards as a parliamentarian and office holder.
His political career was hampered by bad health and differences of opinion with State President Boshoff, and eventually cut short by his early death.
From Cape Town, where he arrived with several other Dutch migrants, Groenendaal travelled to the Orange River Sovereignty, where he established himself in February 1850 as government teacher in Rietrivier in Sannah's Poort (now Fauresmith).
[2] In the years after, Groenendaal strongly propagated Dutch migration to South Africa, bringing migrants to the Orange River Sovereignty privately.
[2] The inhabitants of Sannah's Poort appointed Groenendaal as their representative to the conference in Bloemfontein of 5 September 1853, where a possible political independence of the Orange River Sovereignty was first discussed.
Groenendaal, though not a very powerful figure, still had allies in the Volksraad, which appointed him member of a commission to oversee the state budget for 1858, much to the dismay of President Boshoff.
[6] In November 1858, Groenendaal was re-elected to the Volksraad for the constituency of Midden-Rietrivier en Grootrivier in Sannah's Poort Fauresmith.
This time, he found himself on the side of Boshoff, and up against a majority of the Volksraad, in the debate about unification of the Orange Free State with the South African Republic.