Page 31 - JOA-Oct-21

by Judy Gonyeau,
JOHN
JOHN
managing editor

DEERE
DEERE

Master Blacksmith

& Innovator

ohn was born into a family of six children on February 7, 1804. His working within a few short days of opening the business. He did work
father had a tailor shop, and his mother was a seamstress. When as a farrier, working with horses and oxen, and found a bounty of repair
JJohn was just 4, his father left for England to hopefully secure an work on farm implements coming into the shop. The cast-iron plows
inheritance but was lost at sea, although by some accounts he simply brought west were designed for the lighter, rocky soil in the east, but
“disappeared.” His mother was left to raise him and his five brothers did not work nearly as well in the “muck” found on the prairie in
and sisters. Educational opportunities were few and far between Illinois. Deere studied the reasons so many plows were coming in for
for John and his siblings, but he showed promise as a boy with repair, and in his desire to remedy the situation, he created an innova-
skillful hands. He was constantly tinkering with things and working to tion that would secure his name in the pages of history.
repair them.
At 17, John took an apprenticeship The Steel Plow
with Captain Benjamin Lawrence, a As Deere grew his business thanks to
local blacksmith, who did work for the numerous repairs needed on the
Middlebury College. While there, Deere farmer's cast-iron plows, he realized
gained a reputation for his skill, attention why these were not effective when
to detail, and ingenuity. According to battling the prairie fields. The land was
the College’s Museum of Art, “He made up of sticky soil and clay and
quickly became skilled in smithing iron- would not “scour,” or pile up to the
work for wagons, stagecoaches, and farm sides along the plowline as they did in
tools.” All of which would serve him well New England. Farmers were having to
as he began working for himself. clean the moldboards by hand every few
After opening his own shop in feet to take off the clumps of dirt that
Vergennes and then in Leicester, Deere became stuck to the plow. This was a
gained a reputation for making problem just waiting to be solved by
well-crafted polished hay forks and Early John Deere plow, circa 1845, made in Grand Detour, Illinois Deere, thanks to his early days in the
shovels that drew farmers from photo: The Henry Ford Museum family tailor shop.
throughout Western Vermont to his forge to make a purchase. By this As a seamstress, Deere’s mother was constantly sharpening and
time, he had married Demarius Lamb, a wealthy local girl, and together polishing her sewing needles in order to have them work with tougher
they raised 9 children. textiles such as wool and heavy cotton. By doing so, the steel needles
Deere and his family moved throughout Vermont in search of worked with less effort as the forthright and delicate series of stitches were
steady work. In 1836, the New England economy collapsed, and Deere created. Deere had discovered that polishing the tines of his popular hay
left Vermont to head west with other pioneers. After settling in Grand forks and the blades on his shovels meant they went through crops and
Detour, Illinois, he established another blacksmith shop and started dirt easily and applied his knowledge to the blade of the plow.

At left:
The John Deere
House in Grand
Detour, Illinois,
built in 1836

At right:
Illinois State
Historical Society
marker, on the
grounds, John
Deere Historic Site
(John Deere House
& Shop) - Grand
Detour, Illinois

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