John Deere

John Deere (February 7, 1804 – May 17, 1886) was an American blacksmith and manufacturer who founded Deere & Company, one of the largest and leading agricultural and construction-equipment manufacturers in the world. Born in Rutland, Vermont, Deere moved to Illinois and invented the first commercially successful steel plow in 1837. Early life John Deere was born on February 7, 1804, in Rutland, Vermont., the third son of William Rinold Deere, a merchant tailor, and Sarah Yates. In 1808 After a brief educational period at Middlebury College, at age 17 in 1821, he began an apprenticeship with Captain Benjamin Lawrence, a successful Middlebury blacksmith, and entered the trade for himself in 1826. He married Demarius Lamb in 1827 and fathered nine children. Their daughter Alice Maria married Merton Yale Cady, grandson of Linus Yale Sr. of the Yale Lock Company, and was the proprietor of Alderney Hill Farm, formely Mr. John Deere's blooded-stock farm. They were the grandparents of Jane Mabel Skinner, wife of Warren Crandall Giles, president of the National League and Cincinnati Reds, and parents of William Yale Giles, co-proprietor of the Philadelphia Phillies. Deere worked in Burlington before opening his own shops, first in Vergennes, and then in Leicester. In 1836, Deere left Vermont due to hard times and followed Leonard Andrus, a business associate, to Illinois.