John+Deere's+Story

John Deere was born February 7, 1804. He was born in Rutland, Vermont. Deere didn’t have a good education. At the early age of 17 he was apprenticed to Captain Benjamin Lawrence. Lawrence was a prosperous Middlebury blacksmith. By 1825 Deere was ready to enter the world of trade himself. In 1827, Deere was married, and he became the father of five children. At the time he business was not doing well because he was having trouble with creditors and he was facing bankruptcy. Deere then sold his shop to his father-in-law and departed for Illinois. Deere settled in Grand Detour, Illinois, where he had no problem finding work because there were no blacksmiths in the area. As Deere settled he saw the need to make a new kind of plow out of highly polished steel because the other pl ows s truggled to dig into the hard soil in Illinois. By 1837 Deere had completed the first successful cast- steel plow. By early 1838 Deere had successfully manufactured and sold his first plow. He sold it to a local farmer, Lewis Crandall. The word of Deere’s successful plow spread and soon more farmers were placing orders with him. By 1841 Deere was making anywhere from 75-100 plows a year. From this point on until 1855 Deere continued to manufacture plows. Then he broke up his partnership and moved to Moline, Illinois. There he didn’t manufacture anymore plows. He was mayor for a two year term. He died at home on May 17, 1886.
 * __ John Deere __**