John Deere History and Information About The Company at Deere.com

The Story of John DeereJohn Deere the man The story of John Deere, who developed the world’s first commercially successful, self-scouring steel plow, closely parallels the settlement and development of the Midwestern United States, an area that the homesteaders of the 19th century considered the golden land of promise.

John Deere was born in Rutland, Vermont, February 7, 1804. He spent his boyhood and young adulthood in Middlebury, Vermont, where he received a common school education and served a four-year apprenticeship learning the blacksmith’s trade.

Gained Fame as a Blacksmith
In 1825, he began his career as a journeyman blacksmith and soon gained considerable fame for his careful workmanship and ingenuity. His highly polished hay forks and shovels especially were in great demand throughout western Vermont. But business conditions in Vermont became depressed in the mid-1830s, and the future looked gloomy for the ambitious young blacksmith. Many natives of Vermont emigrated to the West, and the tales of golden opportunity that filtered back to Vermont so stirred John Deere’s enthusiasm that he decided to dispose of his business and join the pioneers.

He left his wife and family, who were to join him later, and set out with a bundle of tools and a small amount of cash. After traveling many weeks by canal boat, lake boat, and stagecoach, he reached the village of Grand Detour, Illinois, which had been settled by Leonard Andrus and others from his native Vermont. The need for a blacksmith was so great that two days after his arrival in 1836 he had built a forge and was busy serving the community.

John Deere - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

John Deere
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John Deere
John DeereFor information on the John Deere manufacturing company, please see the Deere & Company article.

John Deere (February 7, 1804 – May 17, 1886) was an American blacksmith and manufacturer who founded Deere & Company—one of the largest agricultural and construction equipment manufacturers in the world.

Deere was born in Rutland, Vermont, the son of William Deere. After his father disappeared en route to England, Deere was raised by his mother in Middlebury, Vermont, where he received an elementary-school education.[1]

He served a four-year blacksmith apprenticeship, and entered the trade in 1825. In 1827 he married Demarius Lamb, and by 1836 the couple had four children, with a fifth child on the way. The busness was not doing very well and Deere was having trouble with his creditors. Facing bankruptcy, Deere sold the shop to his father-in-law, and departed for Illinois. He left his wife and family, who were to join him later.

Deere settled in Grand Detour, Illinois. As there were no other blacksmiths in the area, Deere had no difficulty finding work. He found that cast-iron plows were not working very well in the tough prairie soil found in Illinois. Deere eventually came to the conclusion that a plow made out of highly polished steel and a correctly shaped moldboard (the self-scouring steel plow) would better be able to handle the soil conditions of the prairie, especially its sticky clay.

In 1837 Deere developed and manufactured his first cast-steel plow, although the issue of whether or not Deere was the first to invent the steel plow is a matter of dispute. The wrought iron plow had a steel share which made it ideal for the tough soil of the midwest, and worked better than other plows. In 1843 Deere partnered with Leonard Andrus to produce more plows to keep up with demand. In 1848, Deere dissolved the partnership with Andrus, and moved to Moline, Illinois because the city’s location by the Mississippi River, and because it was a transportation hub. By 1855, over 10,000 such plows were sold by Deere’s factory. From the very beginning, Deere insisted on making high quality equipment. Deere once said, “I will never put my name on a product that does not have in it the best that is in me.” As the business improved, Deere left the day to day operations to his son Charles. In 1868, Deere incorporated his business as Deere & Company.

Later in life, Deere focused most of his attention on civil and political affairs. He served as President of the National Bank of Moline, a director of the Moline Free Public Library, and was an active member of the First Congregational Church. Deere also served as Mayor of Moline for two years.

Deere died at home on May 17, 1886. The company he founded continued following his death, and has become one of the largest manufacturers of agricultural and construction equipment in the world.

The company’s current slogan is “Nothing runs like a Deere”.

JOHN DEERE

Self-Polishing Cast Steel Plow

John Deere, pioneer, inventor and entrepreneur, singlehandedly
revolutionized American agriculture by developing and marketing
the world’s first self-polishing cast steel plow.

Born in Vermont in 1804, the young Deere worked as a blacksmith’s
apprenticeship. By 1825 he was famous for the literal and
figurative polish of his farm equipment; but later, when Vermont’s
economy began to suffer, he decided to emigrate to the Midwest
(1836). Two days after arriving in Grand Detour, Illinois,
Deere had built a forge and was back in business.

From his new customers Deere learned that the cast-iron
plows they brought with them from the East were unable to
cope with the thicker, tackier soil of the Midwest. While
plowing, farmers had to stop every few feet to scrape off
the damp earth that clung to the plowshare (the cutting blade).

With some help from a fellow Vermonter, Major Leonard Andrus,
Deere invented a remedy. He shaped steel from an old sawmill
blade for the plowshare, and joined it to a specially curved,
wrought iron moldboard (the blade that lifts and turns the
soil). He polished both parts so smooth that the damp soil
would not stick to them. Deere’s Self-Polishing Plow, later
patented (#46,454), was a sensation from its first trial run
(1837).

Though he and Andrus soon had a booming business, Deere
never stopped refining his designs. As he used to say, “If
we don’t improve our product, somebody else will.” In 1846,
Deere had a Pittsburgh company roll the country’s first cast
steel plow. He also made a commercial innovation: at that
time blacksmiths made goods only on order; but Deere, who
had a sure thing, mass-produced his plows and then took them
on sales tours.

Inventor of the Week: Archive

By 1855, Deere was selling over 13,000 plows per year. He died in 1886, but the corporation he formed in 1868, Deere & Company, survives as one of the nation’s oldest and largest manufacturers, with over $11 billion in international net sales and revenues.

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John Deere Tractors

John Deere started off as a plow company. John Deere decided to get into the tractor business. They did this by buying out the Waterloo engine company. The Waterloo company used an inline two cylinder engine which would be the type used by John Deere for the next 40 years.