John Deere

Deere was born in Rutland, Vermont, the son of William Rinold Deere, a tailor. His father disappeared en route to England in 1808, where he was seeking a possible inheritance. John received a basic education from the local common school and briefly attended Middlebury College, before dropping out. With no inheritance and a meager education, he was apprenticed in 1821, at age 17, by his mother. He served four years as apprentice to Captain Benjamin Lawrence, a prosperous Middlebury blacksmith, and entered the trade for himself in 1825.[1][2]
In 1827 he married Demarius Lamb, and by 1836 the couple had four children, with a fifth child on the way. The business was not doing very well and Deere was having trouble with his creditors. Facing bankruptcy, Deere sold the shop to his father-in-law, and departed for Illinois. He left his wife and family, who were to join him later.
[edit] Steel plow
Deere settled in Grand Detour, Illinois. As there were no other blacksmiths in the area, Deere had no difficulty finding work. Growing up in his father’s Rutland, Vermont tailor shop, Deere had polished and sharpened needles by running them through sand. This polishing helped the needles sew through tough leather.[3] He found that cast-iron plows were not working very well in the tough prairie soil found in Illinois, and remembered the polished needles.[3] Deere came to the conclusion that a plow made out of highly polished steel and a correctly shaped moldboard (the self-scouring steel plow) would better be able to handle the soil conditions of the prairie, especially its sticky clay. [4] There are varying versions of the inspiration for Deere to create the invention he is famed for, the steel plow. In another version he recalled the way the polished steel pitchfork tines moved through hay and soil and thought that the same effect could be obtained for a plow.[5]
In 1837 Deere developed and manufactured the first commercially-successful cast-steel plow. The wrought iron plow had a steel share which made it ideal for the tough soil of the Midwest, and worked better than other plows.[5] By early 1838 Deere completed his first steel plow and sold it to a local farmer, Lewis Crandall, who quickly spread word of his success with Deere's plow, and so two neighbors soon placed orders with Deere. Confident that he had some stability, Deere moved his family to Grand Detour later that year. By 1841 he was manufacturing 75 plows per year and 100 plows per year the next.[5]
In 1843 Deere partnered with Leonard Andrus to produce more plows to keep up with demand. However, the partnership became strained due to 1) the two men's stubbornness--while Deere wished to sell to customers outside Grand Detour, Andrus opposed a proposed railroad through Grand Detour; and 2) Deere began to question Andrus's accounting practices. [6] In 1848, Deere dissolved the partnership with Andrus, and moved to Moline, Illinois because the city's location by the Mississippi River, and because it was a transportation hub. By 1855, over 10,000 such plows were sold by Deere's factory. From the very beginning, Deere insisted on making high quality equipment. Deere once said, "I will never put my name on a product that does not have in it the best that is in me." As the business improved, Deere left the day to day operations to his son Charles. In 1868, Deere incorporated his business as Deere & Company.
[edit] Late life
Later in life, Deere focused most of his attention on civil and political affairs. He served as President of the National Bank of Moline, a director of the Moline Free Public Library, and was a trustee of the First Congregational Church.[2][7] Deere also served as Moline's second mayor for a two year term, where despite his disastrous handling of liquor licensing, Deere improved the city's infrastructure by having streetlights, sewage and water piping (including fire hydrants) installed and sidewalks repaired, and bought eighty-three acres for $15,000 for the creation of a city park. Due to chest pains and dysentery Deere refused to run for a second term. [8] [2] Deere died at home on May 17, 1886. The company he founded continued following his death, and has become the world's second leading provider of advanced products and services for agriculture and forestry and a major provider of advanced products and services for construction, lawn and turf care, landscaping and irrigation.[citation needed]

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