John Deere Essay

John Deere was born in Rutland, Vermont, on February 7, 1804. His parents were William Rinold Deere and Sarah Yates Deere, and they had three sons. His father went missing at sea when John was four. He was raised by his mother for the remainder of his child years. He attended the public school system. At age 17, he became a Blacksmith’s apprentice. Then at 21, he got into blacksmith trading. For the next twelve years he traded in towns around Vermont. At age 33, he moved to a small town called Grand Detour, Illinois, due to lack in demands of products back in Vermont, yet again setting up another Black smith shop. At this shop he found himself mostly repairing plows. He then realized the design of the plow made out of wood and cast-iron,

His shop now had water power and cheaper transportation costs. He began to make his mark in his new location by importing British steel to speed up his manufacturing. By 1850, he was producing 1600 plows, and went on to make other tools to go with his line of plows. Eventually Deere contracted with a company in Pittsburgh to produce the steel plates needed, thus eliminating the need to import British made steel. After his wife’s death in 1865, Deere married her sister and became the mayor of Moline, Illinois for two years. On May 17, 1886, he died at his home in Moline, Illinois. Without Deere’s contributions, America would not have a plow suitable for cutting the Grounds of the Midwest. His model of the plow was made of steel, and was self-scouring. Deere was also the first commercially successful entrepreneur in the plow business. Before his plow it took 96hours and six oxen to plow an acre of land. Once his plow was introduced it cut that time down to 1.5-2 acres per day. As America’s population grew, demand in food grew too. Deere’s plow helped America’s agriculture meet that need by cutting that time to plow an acre of field in half. He made it eaiser to grow more and produce