John Deere Papers

John Deere was an inventor, blacksmith, and genius. He once said, “I will never put my name on a product that does not have in it the best that is in me.” He revolutionized the farming industry at the young age of 33 with the invention of the steel plow. All of his work and products were perfected before being sold to make sure they were of the best quality. His invention of the steel plow was extremely significant; it allowed for faster, easier, and more efficient farming. He founded the extremely successful farm equipment company John Deere, which is now a multi-billion-dollar business. Thanks to John Deere, we have the modern equipment we use today, allowing the farming industry to thrive. John Deere was born on February 7, 1804, in Rutland,

Four years after becoming a blacksmith, he opened his own blacksmith shop, and he traveled to various towns throughout Vermont. He did this for over 12 years. When the economy collapsed in New England, he moved to Illinois with many others, searching for job opportunities and work. Here in Grand Detour, Illinois, is where he opened a blacksmith shop that turned out to be extremely successful. Not long after arriving in Illinois, John discovered a huge problem with the commonly used cast-iron plows. The soil that was described as “sticky” would stick to the plows as the farmers tilled through the fields. The reason this was such a significant problem was that the farmers would have to get off the plows every couple of feet and scrape the sticky soil from them. This made tilling the fields extremely inefficient and often took weeks to complete. Many farmers complained and did not know the answer to the plow problem. John Deere had an idea to create a self-scouring plow. He eventually came up with the idea that a highly polished and properly shaped, heavy plow could self-scour itself as well as effortlessly dig through the