(1804–86). As the inventor of the first successful steel plow, John Deere made a real contribution to the development of the central United States as one of the world's great farming regions. The company he founded, now known as Deere & Company, became a leading maker of farm equipment.

Early life

John Deere was born in Rutland, Vermont, on February 7, 1804. His father was a tailor, but John chose to work with iron instead of cloth. At age 21, after four years of helping in a blacksmith's shop, he became qualified to practice the trade himself. Many of his customers were farmers. They bought pitchforks, shovels, and other tools. Deere was a good blacksmith, but there was not enough work for him in Vermont. In 1836 he decided to move to Illinois, where pioneer farmers were working the rich prairie soil. There he found plenty of work.

Career

The farmers of Illinois had to deal with a frustrating problem. The soil there was very good for growing crops, but it was also very hard to plow. It was so thick that it stuck to the cast iron plows that the farmers had brought from the East. The farmers had to spend too much time stopping to scrape off their plow blades. In 1837 Deere got the idea that if the blade of the plow were made very smooth the soil might not cling to it. He made a plow blade from a broken steel saw and gave it a high polish. His first steel-bladed plows worked very well.

Soon Deere began to expand his smithy, making plows in large quantities rather than waiting for individual farmers to order them. In 1846 he turned out about 1,000 plows. He began to import steel from Britain and then from the mills in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. In 1847, to make shipment easier, he moved his factory to the Mississippi River town of Moline, Illinois. By 1857 his production had risen to 10,000 plows a year.

Later life

During the 1850s Deere's son Charles joined the company as a young bookkeeper. Charles proved to be an excellent manager. He led the expansion of Deere & Company after it became a corporation in 1868. John Deere continued to concern himself with the development of the company's products. Late in life he registered some of his ideas with the government as patents. He also served for several years as mayor of Moline. He died on May 17, 1886.