History of John Deere
John Deere was born in the Vermont countryside in 1804. After receiving his education he set out to be a blacksmith. His high quality products and well studied knowledge led to great success in his affairs.
However, by the 1830s Vermont was in rough economic times and many people were heading towards the west with dreams of riches. The tales stirred Deere’s interests, and with a wife and a handful of children, Deere new he had to pursue greener pastures towards the west of the country.
In 1836 he left his Vermont home, having sold off his business. He arrived in an area which was newly settled by many former Vermont residents. The town, Grand Detour, Illinois, was struggling to get itself set up. Deere’s experience and expertise as a blacksmith paid immediate dividends and work soon piled up.
However, just as many of his fellow Vermonters had left Vermont due to a struggle earning a living, many were now thinking about heading back or towards some new destination. The farmland had promise to be fertile but yet was extremely difficult to tend to. This is because the cast iron plows and tools they were using were not strong or efficient enough. The Midwest soil was thick and rich, while the New England soil was light and sandy.
Seeing the problem, Deere applied his knowledge and came up with a makeshift solution. Little did he realize in 1837 that this seemingly minor idea would launch one of the great American companies, that still is a market leader over 150 years later. John Deere had seen an old, broken saw lying around and saw how smooth and polished it was.
He decided to fashion a new plow out of the steel saw, making a steel saw that was efficient and sturdy enough for the rich soil. He also designed it so that it would essentially discard the turned soil after it was finished, eliminating the need for farmers to stop and clean their plows every other step, as they had been struggling to do.
Deere’s plows were in high demand and he knew how to take advantage of it. Rather than waiting for orders to come in and then work on filling them, Deere decided to just start churning them out. He would go around to different places and seek out sales; and the plows, well, they sold themselves.
Soon Deere was importing rolled steel from England for his business. Soon after that, the Deere was using some of the first rolled steel produced in the United States for his John Deere plows. He intelligently set up his factory in Moline, Illinois, taking advantage of the easy transport the Mississippi River provided there.
The company continued to evolve and expand under the direction of his son, Charles. A wider range of farm tools were produced and sold and in 1918, the company purchased the Waterloo Gasoline Traction Engine Company. This made tractors one of the biggest features of the John Deere line.
John Deere and the products under his name remain a symbol of high quality and overall excellence. The familiar green and yellow coloring has been around since the early 1900s and the John Deere products are still renowned for their craftsmanship and quality.