John Deere

John Deere (1804-1886), American inventor, born in Rutland, Vermont. Deere invented a plowshare—the blade of a plow—that cut through tough prairie sod and made it possible to turn the Midwestern United States into fertile farmland.

Deere’s father died when young John was four, and he grew up in poverty and received little formal education. From 1821 to 1825 he apprenticed as a blacksmith in Vermont, and he continued in the trade after completing his apprenticeship. At the time blacksmiths not only shoed horses but also made and repaired farm tools and did other work involving iron. Deere tried to open his own shop, but it burned down twice, leaving him deeply in debt. Times were hard in Vermont in the 1830s; owing money, Deere set out in 1836 in search of new opportunities in Illinois. His family joined him two years later.

Soon after his arrival in Illinois, Deere opened a blacksmith shop in the town of Grand Detour on the Rock River. He quickly understood that plows used to farm sandy soil in the East did not work well in the thick, sticky sod of the prairies. He then set to work to produce a plow that would work. The molded steel plowshare he created in 1837 managed to turn the soil without getting stuck. Because the polished, smooth steel blade shed the soil as it went along, Deere’s invention became known as a self-scouring steel plow.

Deere managed to produce only a few plows a year at first. As business grew, he kept improving the design. The steel he used came from Britain and was expensive to ship in. In 1848 Deere decided to move his business to Moline, Illinois, along the Mississippi River, where he would have better river transportation. Soon the shop was making several thousand plows each year, and he was able to ship in steel from plants in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. In 1858 Deere turned over the day-to-day management of the company to his son Charles, although he remained president. He incorporated it in 1868 as Deere & Company. The company eventually became the leading producer of farm machinery in the United States.