John Deere (inventor)
| John Deere | |
|---|---|
John Deere
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| Born |
February 7, 1804 Rutland, Vermont |
| Died | May 17, 1886 (aged 82) Red Cliff in Moline, Illinois |
| Nationality | American |
| Education | Middlebury College |
| Occupation | Inventor, blacksmith |
| Known for | Deere & Company, steel plow |
| Children | Francis Albert (1828-1848), Jeanette (1830-1916), Ellen Sarah (1832-1897), Frances Alma (1834-1851), Charles (1836-1907), Emma Charlotte (1840-1911), Hiram Alvin (1842-1844), Alice Marie (1844-1900), Mary Frances (1851-1851) |
John Deere (February 7, 1804 – May 17, 1886) was an American blacksmith and manufacturer who founded Deere & Company, one of the largest and leading agricultural and construction equipment manufacturers in the world. Born in Rutland, Vermont, Deere moved to Illinois and invented the first commercially successful steel plow in 1837.
John Deere was born on February 7th 1804, in Rutland, Vermont. After a brief educational period at Middlebury College, he was apprenticed in 1821 at age 17 to Captain Benjamin Lawrence, a successful Middlebury blacksmith, and entered the trade for himself in 1825. He married Demarias Lamb in 1827 and fathered nine children.
John Deere settled in Grand Detour, Illinois. At the time, Deere had no difficulty finding work due to a lack of blacksmiths working in the area. Deere found that cast-iron plows were not working very well in the tough prairie soil of Illinois and remembered the needles he had previously polished by running them through sand as he grew up in his father's tailor shop in Rutland, Vermont. Deere came to the conclusion that a plow made out of highly polished steel and a correctly shaped moldboard (the self-scouring steel plow) would be better able to handle the soil conditions of the prairie, especially its sticky clay.
There are varying versions of the inspiration for Deere's famous steel plow. In another version he recalled the way the polished steel pitchfork tines moved through hay and soil and thought that same effect could be obtained for a plow.
In 1837, Deere developed and manufactured the first commercially successful cast-steel plow. The wrought-iron framed plow had a polished steel share. This made it ideal for the tough soil of the Midwest and worked better than other plows. By early 1838, Deere completed his first steel plow and sold it to a local farmer, Lewis Crandall, who quickly spread word of his success with Deere's plow. Subsequently two neighbors soon placed orders with Deere. By 1841, Deere was manufacturing 75-100 plows per year.
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