Famous Americans

John Deere isn’t just a famous tractor company.

Most Americans recognize John Deere as the company behind the iconic green-and-yellow tractors. But before John Deere – officially known as Deere & Company – became the name of one of America’s best-known agricultural manufacturers, it belonged to the company’s founder: a 19th-century blacksmith who invented a self-scouring steel plow that changed farming forever.

John Deere and the Steel Plow

Born in 1804 in Rutland, Vermont, John Deere was the son of William Rinhold Deere and Sarah Yates Deere. Little is known about Deere’s early childhood, though historians believe he was one of six children. When he was just four years old, his father, a merchant tailor, was lost at sea. With his father presumed dead, Deere’s mother had to raise John and his siblings alone.

As a teen, John Deere worked as a tanner to help keep his family afloat. While his education was limited, he eventually taught himself blacksmithing and accepted an apprenticeship. Deere was known for his “workmanship and ingenuity” as a blacksmith, according to Deere & Company, but when New England’s economy entered a difficult period in 1836, Deere was forced to leave Vermont. He headed to Illinois, establishing a blacksmith shop in Grand Detour.

Deere quickly learned that local farming operations relied on cast-iron plows, but they “performed poorly in the sticky soil of the Midwest prairie.” The sticky soil clung to the plows, forcing farmers to repeatedly stop and scrape the dirt from their equipment. That’s when Deere got to work developing a new plow made of steel with a “highly polished surface.” Using a broken sawblade, Deere invented the first commercially-successful self-scouring steel plow.

“The need for a self-scouring plow was so great, it is said hundreds of people gathered at the farm of Lewis Crandall near Grand Detour to see the young blacksmith test his new product,” Deere & Company explained. “It wasn’t long before manufacturing plows became not only Deere’s identity, but his business as well.”

Deere’s Promise

Deere’s plow business grew rapidly, and in 1848, the agriculture giant moved his operation to Moline, Illinois – about 70 miles from Grand Detour near the Mississippi River. Deere used the river to power his factory and riverboats to transport raw materials and plows.

Deere’s reputation as a plow manufacturer and principled businessman spread, and he quickly started making 1,000 plows every year. The admired inventor said he was committed to building high-quality plows, promising, “I will never put my name on a product that does not have in it the best that is in me.”

The enterprise formally became Deere & Company in 1868, but it didn’t start producing tractors until it acquired the Waterloo Gasoline Engine Company in 1918. Deere’s first tractors – including the two-cylinder Model D – were known for being durable and reliable.

“From the beginning, Deere tractors were designed from customer feedback,” said John Deere Historian Neil Dahlstrom. “They were shaped by what farmers were asking for – more power, more reliability, and equipment they could count on when it mattered most.”

In 1873, Deere was elected mayor of Moline. He passed away in 1886, but his company remains an American icon to this day.

1. John Deere invented a self-scouring steel plow that changed farming forever.
2. John Deere’s company is officially called Deere & Company.
3. Deere began work as a blacksmith with little formal education before founding one of America’s most iconic companies.