GAVE
T O T HE
B$
W O RLD
NEIL
IL LU ST R AT E D
1
8
M
B$
.
C LA R $
DALE
7
3
P
R I VA T E L $
T HE ST EEL PL O W
N IC H O L S
1
P
RINTED
9
3
7
N T E N T S
C O
I A BLAC$ SMITH
II
RUMBLES
1 83 7
O F PROGRESS
III JOHN DEERE S ARRI VAL
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IV
V
FIRST
T HE
DA$ S IN
GRAND
DETOUR
BRO$ EN SAW MILL BLADE
VI AN INDUSTR$ BEGINS
VII AN INDUSTR$
VIII AN ITEM
I$
THERE
OF
IS
GROW S
MA$
1 8. 1 886
THE MAN HIMSELF
A BLAC$ SMITH
l bl ue
IS hair was curly his eyes
his
muscles powerful in the glow of the for ge fire ; and when
he hea r d the screech of ungr eased axles in worn hubs
signifying the passing of settlers wagons he let go the
bellows stick laid tongs aside s t rode to the door of the
shop and s tanding bareheade d in April sunshine and a
lea t her apron cas t a critical eye over the newes t new
comer s to the West of golden p romise Even to the ex
r
e
i
e
n
ce
d
blacksmith
who
had
seen
many
such
they
p
looked a wea r y road worn lot Five canvas co vere d
wagons ; t ired ox t eams heads adroop ; a pack of flea bitt en
”
dogs ; wil t ed women with small children in t he drivers
seats ; bedraggled fowls in cra t es ; half or full grown boys
and maids peering curiously t hrough flaps of the canvas ; a
calf or t wo tied behind ; gaunt men afoot alongside ; patched
harness ; worn rawhide whips
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The wagons creaked to a hal t and a clerk in front of
“
Where
Dana 89 Throop s store hailed them cheerily
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about be you f om strangers
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The tallest of the wago neers made reply
We re ou t
of Delaware County New York mister Seven weeks
and two days on the road so far and not once have we
slept in a house since we started What place might this
”
be?
It s called by the name of Grand Detour sir A name
from the Fr ench signifying the big bend of the river which
“
”
you see at this point
He waved an arm around
Have
”
you folks made a choice of place that you re bound for?
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The tall man cracked his whip idly against a near wheel
We did set ou t for a town some neighbors of ours have
se t t led at called Buffalo Gr ove You know it? But we ll
be sett ling our selves down mos t anywheres soon I reckon
if only t o give our womenfolk a res t from the riding What s
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land like hereabouts?
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This sir said the clerk puffing pompously as a cr owd
“
of listeners began t o ga t her is a place created by the
Almighty as a special paradise for His children He made
it without trees ready for th e p lo w but with timber near
He made it flat enough
at hand in g r oves for every need
s o that no man need stand on his head to farm it but gently
There is no par t of these United
r ollin g for drainage
States I da resay more delightful to t h e eye or more s alu
bri ou s You could make no mista ke in se t t ling on this ver y
spo t or as nea r to it as you can get The river that you
have jus t crossed as you doub t less know is called the
Rock ; one of the great river s in t his mighty s t a t e of Illi nois
Already i t s bed is being p repared fo r s t ea m navigation to
t his point and beyond connecting wi t h t h e Mississippi
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and providing an unexcelled route all the way to New Or
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leans and even beyond the sea
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Concludin g thi s lengthy ou t burst th e clerk did not
”
“
pause even for breath
As for Grand Detour it s elf sir
“
he went on town lots are already s elling here for $ 1 00 to
$400 depending on the location and in another five year s
they may well be sellin g for
to
We expe c t
to see this place blossom into a great city Sir this store
in front of which I s tand will sell ni gh onto
worth
of merch andise thi s very year
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It wa s not the fir s t tim e the tall stranger from the Ea st
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had hea rd ta ll ta lk And yet he loved it His dull eyes
glowed The sunset and dreams of fortunes to be had
through the magi c of a nation s expansion ju s t as the c lerk
s uggested were what had brought him and his family and
neighbors on their long hard journey
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Is the best l an d spoken for? he asked wistfully
It
seemed to us from th e la s t summit that the foot of man
had not stepped here a s far as the eye could see
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Settlers ch oose th e hollows in this country stranger
“
the clerk informed him
You wouldn t see t hem They
are here nevertheless And mor e are coming every da y
The land is filling up so fast it s hard to believe But you
are in tim e even now if you act at once ; you may s till se
”
cure choice locations
“
How is the soil for crops?
The clerk threw back his head and laughed When he
s poke again he addressed the local audience instead of the
“
”
stranger
He asks how the soil is for crops $ he exclaimed
—
Brother
facin g the stranger once more
I ll tell you
how the soil is for crops Scratch the prairie anywhere
you like and drop your seed ; and when autumn comes
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you may harvest fifty bushels per a cre of the finest prairie
corn
Yes spoke up a voice from the crowd derisively
and when you try to plow the same field next year may
heaven help you $ You had better move you on to a new
farm For the plow is not made that will scour in thi s
prairie soil aft er the first year
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The mover cast a clouded look at t he speaker then at
the plow conspicuously tied to the side of his wagon
”
“
he said was made after the patterns of
Tha t plow
Jethro Wood I gu ess you have heard of him They
claim it will turn a clean furrow in any soil
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Not prairie soil after the first year it won t
Nor will
any plow My advice to you my friend is to strike nor th
and keep going till you come to timber or head back where
you came from befor e you bury any of your time and
labor and maybe your own body t oo in this accur sed
—
spot That s what I m about to do g o back ; it s a lesson
that has cos t me dear to learn but the prairies were not
made for the plow and crops If they were why don t
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trees grow on em
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The clerk a born booster had been nearly bursting for
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Don t you lis t en to him sir $
a chance to chip in again
“
he said earnestly
It s true that this soil needs a special
kind of plow But we have a man in this town a mechanic
newly come out here from Vermont who has given study
to the ma t t er and will make you a plow that will turn p r airie
soil no matter how many times it ha s been plowed before
and do the slickes t kind of a job of it Wha t do you say
blacksmith?
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All eyes turned toward the big man with curly hair
who s tood barehea ded and silen t on the fringe of the
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crowd
The latter shook his hea d and smiled s lowly
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I wouldn t want to make a sure promise before I knew
”
I could perform he said
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His eyes however thoughtfully rested on the far bank
of the river Soon now he privately knew he would be
ready for a decisive test of an idea that had come to him
His forge fire had burned early and late his hammer had
shaped the pr ecious steel with infinite care He even
knew the field yonder claimed under preemption rights
by Lewis Crandall where he meant to make his first te s t
Reflecting so h e was r eminded that he still had more work
than he co uld do and that his fire would be coolin g He
turned his back abruptly on the crowd and went in side
his shop
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Who asked th e ta ll stranger from Delaware county
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New York might he be?
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Name of John Deere
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said the clerk
ll
1 8 3
7 RU
I
MBLES
O F
ROGRESS
P
United Sta tes which the blacksmith John Deere
kn ew in 1 83 7 the year of the in cident just narrated wa s
very di fferent from what it i s toda y after a century ha s
passed An d though neither he nor anyone else guessed
i t the blacks mith by his own e fforts and what ca me of
them wa s to be responsible for some of the amazing change s
tha t occurred
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The country at t hat time was literally growing like a
weed New Englanders by the thousands had packed
up and headed for the sunset From overseas from
Germany Ireland and the Scandinavian countries par
ti cu lar l y more wer e coming on every ship
The great
West with its lure and promise and with more than little
boisterou sness ha d burst with full force upon the con
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of the older part of th e young na tion Alrea dy
it had given the unea s y an d more conserva tive Eas t a pres i
“
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dent in t he per s on of An drew Jack so n
Old Hi ckory
was even then completing hi s second term in offi ce
sc i ous nes s
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In Illinoi s India n warfare was only just over Barely
five years before a phys i ca lly powerful but un gainly cap
ta in of volunteer troops raised to repel the t omahawk and
fire invasion of the old Sac Chiefta in Blackhawk had mu ch
ed thr ough country ver y close to where the blacksmi th s
forge in Gra nd Detour stood ; and once not knowing the
proper command to deploy his men upon approachi ng a
narrow gate had reli ed on the w i t of t h e p rairies and said $
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This company is dis missed for two minutes when it
wi l l fall in again on the other S ide of the gate
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Tha t ca ptain s name unknown
fe w was Abraham Lincoln
’
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yet to more than a
as
,
The righ t or wrong of s la very was more and more be ing
Aboli t ioni sts were crying t heir fiery wa res
discus s ed
When certa in citizens of Li aine allegedly abducted a slave
from Georgia and t he governor of Maine refused to sur f
the
render the abductors to the governor of Georgia
Il linois Legislature took official notice of the incident by
t hat
a free sta te or it s citizens ought
resolving $
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no t to interfere with the property of slaveholding sta tes
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Tra vel was still mostly by wagon or horseback sta ge
zoa eh ca nal boat lake or rive r steamer and sailing schooner
Project s for them were
Railroads were just beginn ing
“
”
in the air everywher e
Internal improvemen t s was a
ma gic phrase wi t h legislators and millions of dollars ha d
been voted or were about to be voted in Illinois for canal
construction river improvement railroad construc t ion
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Life had begu n to be speedier more ten s e more excitin g
Men stepped fas ter Mos t
t han in the Colonia l period
of them dreamed of fortunes wa iting to be made by any
“
one who struck it righ t
Boas t ing was becomin g almost
a univer sal habit ; braggar t talk hit the sk y and bounced
The land speculator had hi s day and lived in pink clouds
“
1 00 Town Lo ts
one of them named Gay
of glory
adver tised in t he S anga m o Jour na l on August 5 1 83 7
“
hoping to lure buyer s to his private town Huron
In
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the event of t he cons t ruct ion of the canal the O ptimistic
“
real es tat er declared H uron will possess the advan ta ges
of an imm ense water power that cannot fail to build it up
at once into a flourishing and populous t own
$Today
this place of fabulous possibilities does not e xist on t he
Illinois map $)
But men like trou t rose greedily to such lures Land
hunger was universal It was reckoned t he speedy way t o
wealth Those who had capita l t o in vest bought large
tra ct s and held for the rise that an influx of population
was expect ed to bring There was high precedent for the
practice George Washington him se lf at one time had
held more t han
a cres of wes tern lands anticipating a
speculative re t urn Patrick Henry s land hol d ings made him
wea l thy Robert Morris financier of the Revolution and
the Coun t ry s s econd riche s t m an bought millions of a cres
and m ulti pli ed his fortune by sel ling on the advancing market
For those who ha d li t tle or no t hing to invest save
mu scle and will i t was a har d pioneer life Char les
Dickens ma king hi s firs t America n t our in 1 842 was
appalled and disgusted at the swampy village s he saw
the p ractice of t obacco spi tt ing and inconvenience $to
hi m) of stage coaches cana l boats river s t eamers frontier
ho t els The great novelis t failed to comprehend t he epic
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movement under these crudities
Peter Cartwrigh t
famous itinerant Me t hodist minister of tha t day in nort h
western Illi nois eyed them more sym pa t hetically He
”
described the life $
Ne w set t lemen t s form ed and form
i ng ; hard long rides cabin parlor s straw beds and bed
s t eads made ou t of barked saplings and puncheon bed
cor ds B ut
t he men wer e a hardy in dus t rious
a
m
e
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r
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ca
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and
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The women were
g
g
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also hardy ; t hey would thi nk no har dship of turning out
and helping their husbands raise t heir cabins if need be ;
they would mount a horse and trot t en or fift een mi les to
meeting or t o see the sick and minis t er to t hem and home
again the same day
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lk among t hese poorer fo lk who did the spade work
of pioneering was often big it helped to bolster spir i t s like
whistling in the dark And besides the dullest could see
that under the fro t h was substantial drink behind the
braggin g was enough glittering performance to persuade
each newcomer tha t he might receive fortune s next kiss
Even a poo r man might become rich if he were a good
picker Ha d not A s tor who landed almost penniless in
Had not miser ly
Ne w York died worth
S t ephen Girard amassed
Town lo t s in the
mudhole called Chi cago might sell at the utterly ridiculous
fi gure of $ 1 00 per front foot but who could say tha t even
t hat was too high a price to pay? Had not Gurdon S
Hubbar d ef erm ont er in 1 8 35 became part owner of an
80 acre tract there near the center ; and had he not a few
months later sold ha lf of it for
The wildest
dreams might not be too wild
If
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Already too the era of invention which was t o make
t h e Nine t een t h Century so notable had begun
Fulton s
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first steamboat had tra veled suc cessfully up the Hudson in
1 807 and a quar t er of a century later t he tonn age of s t eam
boats opera t ing on the Mississippi and tributary western
waters was nearly half t hat of t he whole British empire
Eli Whitney s cotton gin was revolutionizing the Sou t h s
chief agricultura l industr y The telegra ph had not yet ar
rived but was soon t o come Trains built to travel at the
dizzy speed of ten miles per hour were already hauling
thousands of adven t urous spirits who da red t o ride on them
The firs t postage stamp early symbol of a new era of more
ra pid communications was issued in England in 1 840 and
t he idea was to be adopted in t he United Sta t es seven yea rs
la t er
Yet despi t e all the bustlin g activity the t ransformations
l ater credited to in ven t ion and in dus t ria lization had little
mor e than be g un Manufacturing was in its infancy
Ne w England factory own er s worked girl employees twelve
and fourteen hours from five in the morning till seven at
night and piously p rotes t ed a gainst any reduction in hours
sayin g t hat t he mora ls of the girls would cer tainly suffer
“
if longer absen t from the wholesome discipline of factor y
”
life $ The hardware store of today was still a t h ing of the
Hundreds of machi ne made articles utter ly
far future
common now were unknown then $ itchen knives and
nea rly all utensils of household and ever yday use wer e s till
made t oindividual or der by t he loca l blacks mith Indeed
the bla cksmi t h was one of the most important individuals in
every community ra nki ng but little below the flour miller
and the sawmill owner
The nat ion was still overwhelmingly agricul t ural too
Three years later in 1 840 t h e census was t o show a tota l
working population of
of which
were
enga ged In agri cultur e ; and even s o t he nati on was no t
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agricultura lly s e lf suflicing The tim e was yet distant
when the efforts of a single farmer multiplied many fold by
machinery could produce enough to support far more
people than the members of his imm ediate family In
1 84 0 a farmer plowed only about an acr e a day ; he could
cradle and bin d only R u t an acre Of wheat ; and he did
other work at a simila r rate Figure s have been compiled to
Show that in the year 1 93 0 assuming that a farmer used the
most modern equipment available in that year the major
operations in growing and harve s tin g an acre of wheat
yielding 20 bushels required total labor of but
man
hours But in 1 830 with the most modern equipment
man
t hen available the same production called for
These studies also S how that if the price
of whea t were $ 1 per bu shel in both years the farmer s 1 93 0
net cash return per a cre was
whereas his 1 830 net
ca sh return wa s only
cents
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Such changes a century an invention were destined
to effect
The fact i s that in 1 8 3 7 agricultura l implement s were
little changed from ancient an d medieval time s A p lo w
man of the time of C hri s t s cra tch ed th e soil of Egypt or
Roman Ita ly with an implement not much cruder than
many farmers were using for plows in the United Sta tes in
the year s when Andrew Jackson was pr esident The bar
vesting of crop s then and in ancient times was also about
equally cru de The wheat farmer used a walking plow a
sack over his shoulder instead of a drill brush instead of a
harrow a sickle flail and forks for threshin g and stacking
and shovel sheet and measure for winnowing But
the
rumble of great changes had be gun to be heard Invention
was about to wave its magic wand
Already in the year
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Cyrus McC ormick had invented a mechanical reaper
to cut grain and it actually worked And in the year 1 83 7
in the little village of Grand Detour on the banks of the
Rock River in Il linois John Deere in his tiny
shop
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,
Here his character was s et in the mold it was t o t ake and
keep Vermont shaped him
before t he West t ook him
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.
Middlebury lies in rou gh countr y surrounded by hills
A boy on an occasional da y of freedom could climb and look
out over a tum bled irregular landscape with a procession
of mountains Bread loaf G rant Abraham Ellen ten miles
to the Ea st ; and t o the w est the blue of Lake Champlain
His eye could pick out in far flun g ocea ns of green grea t
“
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island wastes of deadening s —
for where once this all had
been continuous forest farmer s had girdled trees by the
millions to ki ll them and let the sunshi ne in so they could
s cratch the ground and plant Winters in that country
were long and howling with snow bitter with cold In
February or March a boy exploring in the woods might
find a sugar M p and linger in warmth by the fire to wa tch
“
”
the sap boil down and to get a ta s te of the maple sweet
ness In summ er Otter Creek slothful for most of its
nin e t y m il e length slow to rea ch flood stage after rains and
tha ws but swift enough in the rapids at Middlebur y fur
An d
ni s he d a boy the swimm ing and fishing he wanted
i$m porta nt to the growing boy as a sense of responsibility
began to develop) the Creek furnished excellent sites for
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fa ctories and mechanic establishm ents
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Joh n Deere wa s eigh t when his father left his family at
Why he did so is not
Ii ddle bur y and s et out for England
entirely clear One tradition is that he went t o claim an
inherita nce ; ano t her that he went to buy goods for his
ta ilorin g shop No matter He wen t While waiting
at the por t for his ship to sail he sat down perhaps with a
tight l ump in hi s throat to write a letter to his li t t le boy
John youn gest of his four children
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Take good ca re of your mother
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he said
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The letter quaint and formal has been preserved It
was the last word the family ever received William
Deere s trunk arrived in England But he himself was not
aboard Was h e swept overboard in a gale? Did some
Other strange mishap overtake him in those days when
vessels spent weeks sometimes months crawling acros s th e
t reacherous Atlantic U
nder sail ? Neither widow nor son
ever knew
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Sarah Deere carried on her husband s S hOp When
John was a grown man Sarah died in 1 826 But long before
her death he had begu n to ta ke h is destiny firmly into his
o wn hands
Unknown to her he obtain ed work grinding
bark for a Middlebury ta nner and surprised h er by bring
ing home a pair of shoes and a s uit of clothes as pay She
had wan t ed him to study at Middlebur y College which
was one of t he two higher institutions of learnin g in Ver
mont at that tim e ; and he did so for a very brief tim e But
a sense of the practical rather than t he t heoretical asserted
i t self in him strongly even th en and alm ost at once he chose
another kind of training by apprenticing himself t o a cer tain
Captain Benj am in Lawrence of Ii ddle bury to learn the
blacks mith trade
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Earlier we commented briefly on the impor tance of the
blacksmith in the economy of the nation a hundred years
ago He was as ubiquitous as the garage mechanic of the
present da y and even more necessary ; for he forged the
tools needed for the very maintenance of life He shod the
—
oxen hoisting t hem clumsily aloft in his O e rame and
fastenin g their vicious hoofs during the process He
made the o xshoes even the nails He did t he iron work
on wagons carriages stagecoaches Wha t ever wa s to be
ought in iron he w rought A community was fo rt unate
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to have a blacksmith who having learned well his trade
honored it by honest practice
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Captain Lawrence was such a blacksmith a strict master
but the kind for a boy t o have ; and John Deere p roved an
apt apprentice His wages were such as were paid to
apprentices at that time ; $ 30 for the fir st year and $ 3 5 $40
and $45 respectively for the succee ding years Under his
master s eye he acquir ed the art of making his forge fir e
neither too great nor too small He learned the maxim
”—
Strike while the iron is hot
and the reason for it He
discovered why it was better always to finish a job on the
first heat if possible and to a void reheating He learned
t hat it was no t how hard the blow of t h e hamme r that
mattered but how true Skilled workmanship was the
master s creed and became the boy s delight He gain ed
proficiency in sharpening farmers plowshares shaping axe
heads repairing scythe knives He took even more pleasure
in fashioning new tools better adapted for familiar tasks
He could in a wo rd do more than make sparks fly from th e
anvil He could create
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John Deer e s appren t iceship ended in 1 82 5 and for the
next ten years he worked for others or in shops of his own
in various parts of Vermont never staying very long in one
place and never s traying ver y far from his birthplace His
fir st job was wit h Wm Wills and Ira Allen of Middlebur y
and hi s wages were $ 1 5 per mon t h The following year he
traveled north as far as Burlington then a mere village
where he was employed to do the wr ought iron work on a
sawmill and later on a flaxmill Aft er t hat he was a
partner for a while in a shop at Vergennes a busy town of
stone stores and t he plea sant sound of industr y along the
waterfront ; it wa s located near the mouth of Otter Creek
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and t he shore of Lake Champlain and proudly called itself a
seaport And then he had shop s of his own at Leicester
and Hancock It was during these years of frequent moves
that he more or less broke from the strict routine of ordinary
“
”
blacksmithing $shoeing horses all around for $ 1 ) and began
to design and make tools not only to order but also for sale
for eshadowing what was t o come later The United
States was emerging into a new in dustrial era; John Deer e —
moved on t e manu act uring title His shovels ho es and
pi tchforks were coveted by Vermont farmers because t hey
were stur dy and fi fe
Late In life on a $ isit to
that sta te he was delighted t o discover some of the very
shovels he had wrought and to learn that t hey had seen
steady service for nearly three score year s He also made hay
forks and manure fork s anticipa ting demand and keeping
t hem in stock
A t Bur lington at Vergennes and often in t he t ravels
occasioned by his trade John Deere looked out over the
wa ter s of Lake Champlain saw the black smoke of early
s teamboats ca ught in his nostrils the scent of wide lands
beyond In his shops on the r oad he oft en heard news
abou t t he canal which had been dug and of boats which
sailed direct from Whitehall on lower Lake Champlain to
Wa t erfor d or Tr oy on the Hudson ; and of the still greater
canal wi t h which it connected the Erie which Dewi t t
Clin t on had pushed boldly right across the state of New
York connecting t he city of New York with the Gr eat
Lakes by wa t er reducing fr eight ra t es fabulously from $ 1 00
per ton to $5 carrying uncounted thousands of settler s into
the great fer tile West bringing golden tales back as well as
wheat flour pork potatoes l umber and o ther product s of
the m arke t hungry West Vermont hear d these tales ;
many wer e s t irred with a vague unease o f t heir own hard
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23
o n.
climate and soil
that grim region
was stirred
It was
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slow hard work getting ahead in
John Deere hear d the ta les and he too
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Th en of a s udden the West was br ought very clos e t o
him A Vermont exm aj or k w d Andrus sold hi s
store and went out to Illinoi s in search of bett er health and
a sight of t he count ry Andrus struck out wi t h a party
boun d from St Louis to the famous lead mines located in the
northwestern p art of the state at Galena But he left
them about midway In the neighbo rhood of the Rock
River b e t ouched a sect i on of count ry in which scarcely
any white man t hen was dwelling He decided to explore
it
He may have smoked a pipe with John Dixon who
kept the ferry and a combined tavern and store at the
j unction of $ ellogg s Tra il and t he trail from Chicago ; and
from Dixon he may have gleaned much information about
t he Indians and how they had been pacified and how the
land was rich and hungry for settlers He paddled on up
river pas t wooded islands and bluffs and eventually landed
at the spo t which even then was called Grand Detour He
saw the abandoned shack of an old time fur trader one
Friendly
LaS al li er ; but no other white man s dwelling
Winnebago In dian s ga t hered around while b e cooked his
supp er The peace of t he prairies ent ered into hi s soul
Their p romise persuaded him
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Here
That
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he said to him self
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w
as t h e
year
1 83 4
I will build a city
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He w ent back to Vermont and told friends many glowing
ta les of what he had seen and of t h e particular spot he ha d
chos en for a settlement A few of them were induced to
come out wi t h hi m when he returned the following year to
One of the se was t he man who be cam e
t hi s new Eden
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24
his father in law Amos Bosworth Now Amos was the
owner of a stagecoach and freighting business and John
Deere did work for him They wer e close friends They
If Am os Boswor th
t alked the ven tu re over together
could pick up and go in this fashion why not he? Thus
from man to man passed t he conta gion of the new West
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All details of John Deere s trip to the West whi ch he
undertook in the year 1 83 6 are lost in the terse description
“
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whi ch he himse lf ga ve of it many year s later
by canal and
”
the la kes to Chicago
Yet tha t trip must have been as full
of color and vivid life and s t ran geness for him as was the
first exploration of Antarctica for Admira l Byrd He went
alone He ha d been married in 1 827 to Demarius Lam b a
girl from the town of Granville over east of the l\/Ii d dlebur y
Moun tains But h e left her at home while he went ahead
to see whether he should bid her follow We may imagine
his journey ; the bus y waters on which he t raveled across
—
New York sta te crowded pa cket boats of 40 tons dra win g
“
8 inches of water and replete with elega nt ac commo da
”
tions for travelers the haunting horn of the steersman
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h
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sn
rling
his
horn
in
chin
whiske
s
and
blowing
like
$
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they d r eelected Jackson l ) heard at all hours calling for
—
lock tenders to let the boat through the crack of the
bla cksnake whip over the backs of s t rainin g mule s on the
—
towpath other boats packets or freighters pas sed or
pas sing va g uely seen in mist or at night cabins lighted
—
S moke trailing the smell of cooking the wonder of the
great aqueduct over the Genesee River 802 feet long
the Cayuga marshes often flooded and im passable—o dors
—
of strange cargoes her oic fights staged by ambi t ious bullies
of th e big ditch songs
”
I ve got a mule her name is Sal
Fifteen miles on the Erie Canal
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25
She s a goo d old worker and a good old pal
Fifteen miles on the Erie C ana l
And at last Buffalo the first sight of the wide wa ter s of
Lake Erie white s t eamer s leaving for the fur t her West
others arriving from the West
bustle hope big ta lk
big doings a nation on the move
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The blacksmith fr om Vermont thi rt y t wo migh t y of
muscle stea dy of eye fired wi t h ambition and hope stood
along the canal boa t ra il en r ou te and hea rd such conver sa
tion as t his $
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powerful easy on these waters for you an me today
s tranger We jus t float an git thar But I can t e ll you
”
we sweat in t he building of the big di t ch a dozen years a go
It
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Aye
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Aye I had the contract for this very stretch Shovels
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axes spades wheelbarrows s crapers that s all we had to
work wi t h an t hey was too benightedly slow for us We
had to cut thr ough matted tree roots t wo inch es thick
Ii lli ons of em Yes sir $ I myself sir had a plow built
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A plow?
A plow sir the like of whi ch was never seen before
Wi t h a colter ahead of the sha re Took three teams of
oxen t o draw it A regular mas t er of a plow Oh we
went t hrough But the grief we had $ The colter s and
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shares we m ined $
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A better plow The blacksmith was interested in that
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Beyond the Erie Canal John Deer e sail ed up the la kes
pas t Det roit t hrough the Straights of Mackinac down to
Chicago Already this r emote village was be ginn ing to
boom In t hat yea r the arrivals of vessels numbered 49
steamboa ts and 3 83 sailing shi ps A census to be ta ken on
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the tiny settlement Men in homespun gathered in eager
ta lk on the stoop of the store Over all l ike a blanket
hun g the quiet of the great prairies A quiet however
t ha t was quiveringly aware of the kick of the future in the
womb of the pre s ent
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A century has passed sin ce hi s coming Gra nd Detour is
still a tin y villa ge snuggled in the bent elbow of the river
It drowses now whether under summ er suns or winter
ws asking only to be undisturbed But then it lay in
th e dire c t path of a United States comi ng of age in the very
rip tide of invincible advance
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FIRST
D A$
S
IN
GR A ND
DETOUR
OHN DEERE brought the tools of his trade with him
or at least those most essential ; for no s ooner had he arrived
than he was asked to repair a broken pi tman shaft in the
sawmill on Pine Creek nearby He needed a forge for this
and there was none So he built one in a hurry using
stones picked up along the river ; clay ser ving for mortar
Within two da ys t he shaft was repaired and the sawmill
was running again ripping out boar ds for the homes waiting
to be built ; and the community had learned that it now had
a mech ani c who knew how to use tools and should be able
to serve them well
Right from the first the Vermonter had all the work he
could handle Farmers who had been wishing for a black
s mith but had done wi t hout because of the 40 mil e trip to
the neares t shop dumped their broken clevises trace
chains etc on his floor for prompt repair He built a
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29
little shop
in Grand Detour and near it a small snug frame
h ou se 1 8 x 24 divided into five rooms with a firepla ce in
the livin g room a s teep s tair s two up s ta irs bedrooms Th e
house restored still s tands It reminds a vi sitor strongly
of a wh ite cotta ge in s ome New England town To
John Deere s wife who ma de the long journey to join her
hu s band in 1 83 8 it must have seemed cozy comforta ble
homelike even on thi s far s trange frontier There is a
tradition concernin g her arrival Sh e did not come by
canal a s h e did but in a mover s wa gon from Han cock
Verm ont to Buflh lo New York thence by l ake s team er to
Detroit and thence overland by wagon aga in ; and most of
th eir household goods an d h er bro ther in law William
Peek came too al s o th e three daugh ters and two son s of
John Deere . It was a terrific s ixweeks journey Step
ping down at la s t from the wa gon that brough t her she
handed her hu s band a bun dle that squirmed
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Here Joh n she said you h old him a while
ca rried him all th e wa y from Vermont $
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It was their y ear old s on Charle s wh om John h ad never
seen The ba by wa s to grow up and play an important
part alongside his fath er
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Ver y soon plows began to a bsorb more and more of
John Deere s attention for the rea s on th at the plow was
the al l im portant im plement of s ettler s ; and the plows they
had were giving trouble In th e winning of this continent
from Atlantic to Pacific the man with a rifle ca me first He
walked softly ; t he thunder of his gun soo n faded ; he left
few tra ces of his pa s sing Next came the man wi t h an axe
The land changed under his hand It was
and a plow
only when these forerunner s ha d gone ah ead and prep ared
the wa y that the pioneer s with s teel rail s the merchants
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c i vi li
manufacturers and all others who constitute modern
za t ion began to pour into t h e wildernes s and fill it up
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At first the axe was al l im p ortant The eastern part of
the countr y as far west as Ohio and Indiana was densely
wooded an d the trees had to be cleared or killed before
the plow could do its part The prairies however were
different They were not forested except in s ca ttered
groves and along the river s Even the groves when the
first settlers arrived wer e clear of under brush kept so by
annual spring fires The eye traveled s t raight ahead with
little obstruction through marching rows of tree trunk s
There was ample timber however for building for fence s
and for firewood An early writer says of the country
in the immediate vicinity of Grand Detour that in addi t ion
“
to the river tim ber
which ex t ends from one end of the
c ounty to the other on either side of the river there are
2 1 groves conta ining from one half to s i x sections or from
acres of tim ber each ; and so di s t ributed over
3 50 to
th e wh ole a s to accommoda te every township in the
county
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An ideal arrangement a de lightfu l seeming land to
s ettlers who had known the h ardship of clear ing every acre
and pulling hundreds of stumps in order to have a few
a cres free for the plow Here a plow could travel almost
a s far as the eye could see over a gent l y bi llowing landscape
an d never turn out for a s tump or strike a buried tree root
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But in every ointment t here mus t be a fly
farmers ointment ha d a big one $
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The prairie
’
Plows like most other agricultural im plements short ly
before that tim e were but little better than their medieval
predecessors Much of t he early plowing in the United
State s wa s d one
t s tha t were hardly more
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31
than pointed stick s or tree roots trimm ed to shape and
pointed with cru de l y hammere d iron shares But at about
the beginning of the nineteenth century invention turned
to the improvement of the plow Considerable advances
were achieved The recor d shows that the first ca sti iron
plow in Am erica wa s pr oduced by one Ch arles New
bold
about the year 1 796 He is said to have spent a fortune
developing hi s plow and to no per sonal advantage ; for
farmers conceived the strange notion that cast iron poisoned
the soil impaired fer tility encouraged weeds
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This notion gradually wore it s elf out and other inventor s
took up where Newbold left off Versatile Thomas Jeff
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fer so n interes t ed himself in working out w
adere d
the proper design for a moldboard ; however he never in f
Dani el Webster
corp orat e d h i s ideas in an actual plow
momentarily forsakin g oratory tried his senatorial hand at
the design and actual construction of an improved plow
Notable practical designer s were Jethro Wood and David
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Peacock
Clute and Wiar d were other familiar
names on ear ly plows that served their pur pose mor e or
less well in the East and found their wa y to the West
usually s ecurely tied to the side of the covered wagon
Wood s plow in particular marked a great advance be
ca use of th e assembly principle ; he made the iron por tions in
—
three parts instead of one share moldboard landside
so that if a part were broken it could be replaced without
buying a new plow
Now for the fly in the western settler s ointment
Prairie soils wer e difl erent fr om those of the East The
la tter as a rule were loos e and somewhat pebbly The
earth fell away from the cast iron share and moldboard
causing little trouble The prairies however were com
posed of a sticky muck Instead of falling away the ear th
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stuck great gobs of it like balled snow on a man s boot
heel till the plow could no longer move in the furrow
John Deere paused often with hammer poised over hot
iron to hear ta lk between farmer s like this $
“
Th ese prairies are fine and dandy to look at with the
eye But they re no good to a farmer if he has to plow a s
”
I did toda y
“
?
How wa s that
Two team s of oxen and a paddle The beas t s pulled
till they could pull no more Then I d yank the plow out
of the furrow and clean it with the paddle Tha t soil I
tell you sticks lik e brother Jona than s gluepot I spent
a whack more of my tim e c leaning I reckon th an I ever
did plowin g
I believe you Th es e prairie s will never be farm ed till
we have a plow that s cours
And tha t to my thinking will be never
And a s the pois ed hammer finally fell on hot iron it
mu s t ha ve been sin gin g a s trange refrain to the blacksmith
from Vermont $
A plow that scours
A plow th a t scours
A plow tha t scours
A practi ca l man this bla cksmith One who thought
in terms of present needs and materials but of a product a
step in advance Could thi s thi ng that all the farmer s
wan ted be made? Could a mechanic who knew hi s trade
thoroughly build a plow tha t would scour? If s o how?
Not a papera n d drawmg board plow but one built in a
frontier shop for frontiers men t o use behind sweating
oxen of materia ls such as might be found in a frontier
communi t y?
It was a cha llenge
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B R O $ E N S AW M I L L B L A D E
THE
O R T AN T
event s
not nece s sarily reveal their
full importance at the time Signi fica nce grows in re t rospect
John Deer e on a brief visit to the sawmill whi ch Leona rd
Andru s and others were operating at Grand Detour spied
a large circular saw blade of excellent Sheffield s teel which
had been broken and laid aside as of no further use No t hing
r emarkable about that
But loo king back it must be
reckoned a momen t ous even t For insta ntly in t o the
blacksmi t h s mi nd flashed t he thought that here wa s the
material from which migh t be fashi oned a plow tha t would
scour S teel $ He not iced how the metal shone where
it ha d been polished by friction wi t h wood Could soil
even s t icky black p rairie muck cling to such shiny stu ff?
The mechani c s mind quickly visioned a plowshare and
gent ly curving moldboard made in one piece from the
s aw from which he im agined the ea r th would fall away
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of the p art s have been roughly patched with wire and
bolts It i s better not to look a t it at all unless with the
eye of an a ctive im agination For time has s tolen it s first
magic On that bright morning in 1 837 when John Deere
wiped the sweat from hi s brow wi t h the back of hi s hand
“
” —
i t was an implement
and said proudly She s finishe d
that caught and held the eye ; new sturdy but light
enough for a s trong man to carry on his shoulder the s un
flashing fr om the polished steel as li ght from a mirror
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Farmers roundabout had heard what the blacksmith wa s
up to For the most part they were s ke ptig l but willing
So some of them together with a number
to be s hown
of villager s assembled to watch John Deere s promised
test of the new plow Birds sang in the topmost branches
of the villa ge oaks that morning ; fat gray s quirrels chased
another
chattering
from
limb
to
li
m
b
O
n
the
ot
h
er
“one
of the river shadows of wind blown clouds raced acros s
u n dulatin g p rairie fields fenced with rails
But the little
group of intere s ted specta tors paid scant attention t o these
familiar things They climbed into the boat with John Deere
and his precious plow or followed in other boats and
rowed a cross to the far bank calling jokes to one another
warning the curl y hea ded blacksmith not to be too down
in the mouth when his plow proved itself no whit better
“
than the plows brought from back Ea st
John was not
given to light ta lk but he sent as good ch aff as he received ;
an d s in gle hande d he ca rried the plow across hi s shoulder
to the field where Lewi s Crandall was waiting with the
ne cessary h orse and where it was said that no plow would
ever scour This field wa s presumably part of the farm
of 1 0 1 1 7/
1 00 acr es which Crandall sold five years later to
Mos es Hubb ard for
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36
Hi t ching up was no long proc ess In five minutes all
wa s ready
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Want me to ta ke her? Cranda ll a sked
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I will said John you drive
Crandall s lapped the reins on the horse s back The y
were o ff John Deere held the handles which h e had
fashioned from sapling roots and polished smooth The
plowshare bit deep into bla ck soil The horse put his
withers into t he pull Soil began to cut and curl from
the moldboard in a neat smooth furrow The specta tors
trudged be hind mostly silent watching and wondering
After an eighth of a mile they all s t opp ed to apprais e the
performance
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By cracky $ exclaimed one bysta nder after a good look
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at t he plow She s clean $
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There were several ech oe s of this approval an d some
shouts of doubt
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u r s h e s clean
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said one of the doubters
,
but you
wait $
Cranda ll turned the horse and they trudged back across
the field cutting another furrow It was an ideal field
ideal weather for the test The earth was still a little too
moist ; if ever it would stick to a plow it should stick now
At the end of the second furrow they stopped for a further
examina tion Moldboard was surprisingly clean The
gumm y soil seemed unable to cling to it A farmer turned
to hi s neighbo r $
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No need of your paddle with that plow $ he remarked
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triumphantly
She moves right along and polishes her
self as she moves
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The one spoken
to
had broken many a prairie acre
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37
Aye
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he said drily
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it seems but I
so
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s ti ll
don t believe
’
it $
Round and round the field they went Half a dozen
times A dozen John Deer e r elinquished his place at
the handles and let others take a turn at holding the plow
The worst pessimi sts finally had to admit that his plow
s coured better than any plow they had ever seen The
optimist s on the other hand were en t husiastic John Deere
himself was pleased ; but not too pleased
“
I m making you a present of this plow Lewis
he
“
said to Cra ndall for loaning the use of your land and the
horse But I d like well to ta ke it back with me to the
shop for a few days I doubt not I ll build another and
I will wish to study this Maybe ways of im proving it
will occur t o me
So ended the test of John Deere s first steel plow A
truly memorable occasion in the history of agricul tural
implements in America ; ye s in the history of America
itself
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38
AN
I N DUSTR$
B E GI N S
man who ha d come out from Vermont bringing the
tools of his tra de and an ambition to better himself was
more than a skilled mechani c and blackSQM ore than
an inventor H
mtion the business instinct
It was in him not only to design a better plow but also
to give i t to t he wor ld ; as Henr y For d a good many years
la ter was able not only to conceive and create a lo w price d
car but also to win mass distribution for it In Vermont
instead of waiting for customer s t o order Shovels or hay
forks made John Deere had followed the pract ice of making
them up ah ead an d havin g them on hand when customers
called This was more like modern manufacturin g and
was an advance on the common p ract ice of his time
most blacksmiths were cont ent to make to order only
Indeed t he idea of manufacturing was not unfamili ar t o
Deer e for in Vermont the great manufacturer of scales
Mr Fairbank s learni ng of hi s skill in making f orks had
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urged him to move to St Johnsbury and devote him self
entirely to their production So now having seen hi s
plow a t least a qualified succe ss he resumed hi s pra c tice of
occupying his spare time by building in advance of demand
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According to record s that have come down he built
only one plow in 1 83 7 In 1 83 8 he built three During
th ese years of course he was ca rrying on his regular tra de
of blacksmithing and also did the entire iron work of a
new saw and flouring mill In 1 8 3 9 however he wa s a b le
to build ten plows ; and by 1 842 he was building no le s s
than one hundred or about two per week He allowed
each plow to be it s own salesman and demonstrator Th e
s tor y of how he did this has been told by a man then resi
dent in Grand Detour John M Gould who la ter for a
time was John Deere s p artner
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At th e time h e su cceeded in getting hi s first plows to
“
scour Mr Gould wrote the government lands in t hat
part of the country were subject to entry Previ ous to
that time nearly all th e farm s in that vi cinity were h eld
under preemption laws or c laims
The land offi ce he
goes on to say was located at Dixon half a dozen miles
away and at the tim e of the land sales large numbers of
farmer s from far and near pa s sed through Gran d Detour
on their way to e s tablish legal ownershi p of the farm s on
which heretofor e they had been virtually squatter s At
s uch tim es John Deere made it hi s custom to have one or
m ore plows on exhibit in front of his shop On top of the
beam appeared the legend Self Polisher
Mr Gould
record s a remembered conversation typical of many other s
A farmer driving through stopped for a look at the plows
He read the legend
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Self po lisher
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be damned $ he exploded
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There n ever
was a plow made that will scour in t his prairie soil
“
John Deere heard him and cam e out front
Stranger
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he s aid where do you live?
Th e farmer spat over the wagon wheel Up Blooming
ville way
“
Will you Deere said take one of these plows home
with you and try it? An d if it doe s not scour will you
le t me know? I will send for it and ge t it without any
”
cost to you
“
Aye? And if it does scour?
I ask $ 1 0 for it
Many of the farmers to whom thi s proposition wa s put
“
Gould says begged off saying I don t want to be bothered
”
wi t h any t hing of that kind Mr Deere
But now and
then a man consented Through the s e his earliest cus
t om ers Deer e s reputation gradually grew
La ter wh en
th e busines s was in creasing pretty ra pidly he made a pra c
tice of loading severa l plows on a wagon an d peddli n g
them from farm to farm ; or when that was too arduou s
he would leave several with a well locat ed farm er wh o
wa s asked to sell them and ta ke a commis sion for hi s trouble
Jo hn Deer e was not satisfied with thes e early plows
He was continually te s ting them in different s oil s under
different condi t ions in various parts of the coun ties roun d
about Says Gould Mr Deere in his early experience
would make a plow t hen go out and give it a trial and if
it did not work he would ta ke it to pieces and cha nge th e
shape and try it again
It was perhaps in the sha pin g of
the moldboard that John Deere s ingenuity skill and per
severance were evidenced best Nobody else was so
thoroughly convinced as he nor did anybody el s e work
that successful scouring depe nded not
so hard to p r ove
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only on t he kind of me 1 used but also on the shape
This idea he wrestled with till he pinned both shoulder s
to t he mat
uite often a wide eyed small boy rode with
him on thes e early test trips and held the plow for him
or drove The blacksmith s son Charles got his first
acquaintance wi t h the business of manufact uring plows
when the top of his head was still almost too low to reach
above t he handles of the plow
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At the outs et John Deere seems to have contin ued using
sawm ill saws for the steel par t s of hi s plows There was
p ractically no other source of steel readily available to him
Indeed getting even iron wa s sometimes a
at tha t t ime
good deal of a chore Once Gould says he had to drive
a one hors e sprin g wagon all t he way to Sp r ingfield for i t
t ha t bein g t h e nearest place wher e any was to be had
Steel of the ki nd and shape he wanted was nearly uno b
ta in abl e in t his country
Mos t men
have let t ha t
fact bea t t hem Not John Deere He entered into a
lengt hy correspondence wi t h t he rep resentatives of an
’
English firm Naylor 89 C o and per suaded t hem to have
ca s t s t eel rolled for him in shape for cutting the moldboards
This the fir s t steel of t he kind ever r olled arrived after
many mon t hs It came in short slabs ea ch slab conta in
ing about enough material for half a dozen moldboards
Due to t he high ini tial cost and the costs of transpor ta tion
however the pri ce of the metal was close to $ 300 per ton
a little too expensive to be buil t i nto plows for t he great
majority of farmer s li ving on a fron t ier where cash was
always hard t o come by Furthermore there wa s con
s i derab le trouble due to the action of salt s ea air on the
meta l during t he crossing The first shipment ordered
r ea d y p o li sh e d on arrival was found to be badly pi t ted by
rust John Deer e res olved to make an e ffort to obta in
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,
The a greement was twice rewritt en at later da tes to
admit other partners first a certain Horace H Paine and
aga in one Ora mel C Lathrop It was finally t erminated
in 1 847 During it s lifetime the busine s s had considerable
growth A plow factory of brick was built It became
a familiar sigh t to s ee Deere Andrus or one of their helpers
ma rch ing from blacksmi th shop to plow fa c tory or back
again with castin gs or finished plows over th eir s houlder s
Th e p artners a lso constructed the fir st foundry s een in
tha t part of the country using hor s e s to drive the cupola
fan ; an d be ca us e they did not have horses enough of their
own the y borrowed from their neighbors Once a week
“
”
th ey hea ted the meta l in the cu pola and poured
It
was a sigh t th at the majority of people in th a t part of th e
coun try ha d never seen ; they used to come for miles out
of curiosity to watch th e process
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In
the last full year of th e Andrus and Deere part
For
ners hip abo M a t ho us and p lo ws were manufac tured
a business of such size and pro s pect s John Deere decided
that G ran d Detour wa s no t the best possible location
It wa s t oo remote he fel t from supplies an d trans
Coal
h
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to
be
hauled
overland
b
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wagon
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from the min es n ear LaSal le a dista n ce of some 40 miles
over road s often hu b dee p in mud All plow s sold unle ss
ca lled for b y customers ha d to be delivered by wagon
Naviga tion of the Rock R iver by steam boat onc e th ought
t o hold promise ha d not proved a success
On e steam er
the Gips ey did am bitiously make a trip ups t ream as far
as Gran d Detour in April 1 83 8 but the trip could be made
safely only d urin g s hor t periods of high water Another
steam boa t th e Lig hter w ent even further upstream in
1 844 but t wo or three trip s ended the e ffort
Railroads
were still in the share sel ling and hope stage so far a s
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that part of t he s tate was concerned and the whistle of
the locomotive was no t to disturb the ancient peace of
these prairies for several years to come
All s uch considerations and possibly o t hers induced
John Deere to reach the importa nt conclusion that h e
should locate elsewhere He foresaw the growth of man
Oa ts and corn at 8 and 1 0 cents a bus h el
ufac t uring
an d wheat at 49 and 50 cents a bushel were being shipped
to the New England sta tes to feed a rapidly increasing
manufa cturing population and John Deere and other s
wondered why th e West sh ould not have its own in dus
tria l growth Accompanied by his foreman Robert N
Tate h e drove about looking at various possible site s and
on one of th ese excursions ca me to IvIoli ne on th e Mi ss
issip pi of which he had already heard favorable report s
”
”
At th at time Moline was a very nice village with a
dam and water power and a handful of mill s of variou s
kinds Deere decided it wa s the place for him So in
1 847 th e p artner ship was term inated
An a greement wa s
reached as to th e territory in which each man was to h ave
exclu sive selling right s for Major Andrus wa s determ ined
to continue the manufacture of plows a t Grand Detour
John Deere for hi s part now a ful l fl ed ged manufa cturer
rather than a mere blacksmith onc e more s et his fa ce to
ward the sun s et Hi s removal this tim e however in f
volved a journey of only about s eventy mile s
At the time he took this s tep Joh n Deere wa s 4 3 years
old It is s aid that he wa s worth a bout
This
may well have been true for an exa mination of property
transfers in Grand Detour during the four years 1 847 to
1 85 1 whe n he was wi n di ng up hi s afians t here shows that
he and his wife disposed of various parcel s of real estate
for a tot al consideration of
Not great wealth to
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be sure yet considering th e fact that he arrived in thi s
little village with a total cash capita l of
his stay
had not been entirely in vain
Aside from material con siderations John Deere had
definitely established himself as a successful designer and
builder of plows of a type better suited to the work re
quired of t hem t han any theretofore produced Most
im portant of all he knew what he wanted and had learned
how to carry on beyond t he point at which he had arrived ;
they say t hat if a man has learned that by the age of forty
he has done well indeed
Judged by later accomp lishments John Deere had barely
made a start It was his destiny to m
the wq d t h?
s teel pl ou
z and to join tha t small company of men wh ose
W m enrolled i n hi story for basic contributions to the
wor ld s progress When he left Grand Detour in 1 847
the whole world and both hemispheres lay before him a
nut waitin g to be cr acked and b e with the hammer to
crack it $
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AN
I N DUSTR$
GR O W S
is not the purpose of the pres ent account to go into
exhaustive and perhap s tediou s deta ils concer ning the later
growth of the business which John Deere founded Only
a few of the high spots will be touched
In those first year s in Molin e difficulties were num erous
part ly because of S cit of funds partly be ca use of
hazards inherent in esta blishi ng any new enterprise and
to a very considerable extent because of the lack of modern
methods of travel transpor t communica tion banking
credit adver tising salesmanship Travelers to and from
3
Moline were s erved by Fr ink E9 Walker s line of four hors e
stagecoaches of the type described by the English traveler
Ruxton who crossed the Illinois prair ies in one of them in
“
t he year 1 847
It is a huge lum bering aflair with leathern
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sp rings Ruxton wrote and it creak s and groans over
the corduroy roads and unmacadamized ca useways thum p
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ing bumping and dislocating the limbs of it s inside s
whose smothered shrieks and exclamations of des pair often
ca use t he woodsman to pau s e from his work an d leaning
upon his axe lis t en with as t onishment to the din which
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proceeds from i ts convulsed interior
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The daily stagecoach arrived in Moline each night ju s t
a little before dark if the roads were in average condition
a nd left early in the morning It took from 3 6 to 48 hours
to go to Chicago and longer to St Louis The ri ver was
th e nat ural route to St Louis but when navigation wa s
closed the sta gecoach was the only public conveyance ;
a traveler bound thither from Moline mus t first go
north to Albany then east to Dixon t hen south through
Bloomington and the centra l part of the state
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To go to St Louis in t he winter Mr Deere once
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remarked grimly we had to go by the way of Michilli
mackinac $
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When th e river was frozen and heavy article s were
needed from a distance they had to be freighted i n by
wagon If t hey were brought from Chicago it took about
two weeks ; if from Galena only about half as long
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It wa s considerably easier however to distribute plows
from Moline than from G rand Detour A much larger
t erritor y cou ld be reach ed
Th e plows were loaded on
river s teamers for such points as Galena Dubuque Burling
ton Muscatine and $ eokuk and from there they were
sent out to surrounding town s and farm s by wa gon
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As for banks ther e were none nearer than Galena or
Burling t on Even the money in use was mostly foreign
—
Mexican French or English hard money for the mos t
part but also with a sca ttering of dubious bank note s from
Missour i Ohio Indiana If ex cha nge on St Lo ui s or
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New York were wanted in winter it could sometime s be
bought by crossing the river and making arrangements
with a certain law and land firm in Davenport ; but s ome
tim es after ferr ying a cros s the river it was found that
even thi s could not be arranged and the money bag had
to be brought back $Telephones of course were s till
unknown ) In summer clerk s on the steamboats could
be trusted to handle such matters When imm ediate cash
was needed perhaps to stave off an insistent creditor
there was no such thing as negotiating a routine loan
Money if obtained at all had to be hunted to its hiding
places One day John Deere badly needed $200 He
asked a merchant in Rock Island if the latter knew of any
place where such a sum migh t be obtained
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Do you know that Swede tailor in Moline? the mer
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ch ant asked
Johnson hi s name i s
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Ha s h e got $200?
No ; but he has a friend just arrived from Sweden
I borrowed
from the friend I think he has s ome
more
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Yes
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John Deere rushed back to the factory and burst in on
John Gould who wa s then one of his partners and in
“
”
charge of the financial end
Tailor Johnson he said
“
ha s an acquaintance who has some money Hunt him
up as quick as you can and see what you can do
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Gould hunted and found him Then an interpreter
ha d to be found But the loan was negotiated ; $200 in
gold for a year at 1 0 per cent interest $
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Mails were slow the pos tal service casual Posta ge
stamps remember were just comi ng into use in the United
States the year John Deere moved to Moline The post
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49
mas ter was a certa in Dr Well s He kept the ofli ce open
to suit hi s convenien ce sometime s for three or four hours
a da y The plow fa ctory rented one of the largest boxe s
s o located that a person could see through the fron t win
dow wh ether there was anything in it ; and if there were
and it wa s wanted in a hurry a hunt for the doctor wa s
in di ca ted He wa s likely to be found p arked somewhere
on a store counter hands wound round one knee telling
s torie s
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Mail? he would say to the inquirer all righ t
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patien tly
I 11 go down and O pen Up presently Now
a s I wa s saying
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If i t was hard to find money to pa y credi tors it wa s
doubly hard to collect from debtors Fairly aggressive
s ellin g methods for that time were u s ed John Gould
for insta nce was sent to Iowa City in January 1 849
Th e legislatur e wa s in session there He interviewed all
the members and fr om them secured th e name s of business
m en in various part s of the s ta te who might s erve as agents
Correspondence followed Many of these men were
signed up Plows were then placed with th em on com
s ignm ent and the agents in t urn sold the farm er s usually
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on tim e When asked to pay for plows sold they were
pretty likely to refuse
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We ca n t a fford to advance the money was their
excuse
We have sold the plows and ta ken the farmers
notes You can have the notes if you want them But
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we can t ca sh them You mu s t just wait till we collect
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John Deere in the ea r ly da ys found only one exception
to this universal debtor delay He had an agent in Des
Moine s who when asked to settle counted the number
of plows sold and handed over the ca sh at once It was a
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50
ma nufactured) to
yearly if necessary
And he
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added $
Alway s on hand and for sale wholesale or re
tail every variety of one and two horse Plows ; all sizes of
Brea kers Also a superior article of Seed Drill
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The railroad came through in 1 854 and in 1 856 a bridge
was completed that opened up rail tra ffic across the Miss
It did not bring a t once nor for a long time the
i s s i p pi
high speed service of 1 93 7 but it did simplify bo t h passen
ger travel and freight transport and greatly im proved the
mail service The telegraph ca me at the same tim e Dis
tan t parts of the country were drawing in closer one to
Far
ere only hour s apar t now whereas
an other
be fore they had been separated by days or weeks The
tempo be gan to be more like that of our day
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Charles Deere was rapidly growing up and cam e into
This wa s importa nt The s on de
t he business in 1 853
ve lo p ed skill in financial matter s sagacity in orga nization
—
an d m er cha
d other management qfi hti es which
supplemented his father s skill as a mech anic and manu
facturer The older man for insta nce had been content
to keep book s by a rudimenta ry system amounting to litt le
“
more than a diary A sale was written out $ sold such
”
and s u ch to s o and s o ) often in such sketchy form that it
was unintelligible to anyone else Purchases likewise
The son however had been to $ nox College at Galesbur g
for a while and at Bell s Busines s College in Chicago and
was able to s ystematize all this Under his hand his
father s plow company whi ch had always been or ganized
a s a par tnership or an individual enter prise gathered speed
and cohesion and came in time
to take on the smooth
running ch aracteristics of a modern successful corpora
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52
Years s lipped pas t like flood waters in the Mississippi
The furt her Wes t was fillin g up rapidly now just as Illinois
had been filling up when John Deere firs t adventured into
it As ear ly as 1 846 the historian Francis Parkman pas s
“
ing through St Louis on a tour of curiosi t y and amuse
”
ment to t he Rocky Mountains had remarked on the
br eathless rush Emigrants from ever y par t of t he country
preparing for the journey to Oregon and California Traders
in great numbers bound for Santa Fe Hotels crowded
Gunsmiths and saddlers kept at work till all hours St eam
boats leaving the levee nearly ever y day bound up the
Missouri wi t h crowds of passenger s a majority of t hem
farmers going to seek out t he far frontiers And where
farmer s went of course John Deer e plows went t oo A
farmer was pleased to have a plow made in Moline The
reputa tion of the skill ed frontier blacksmith was penetrat
ing to the remotest parts of the countr y and even beyond
the seas And in Moline itself as a Sign that the fir st
r ough pioneering stages of the business were past
the
headquarters of the company gradually came to assume a
cer ta in appropriate dignity and elegance A writer with
an as tonished pen visitin g t he pla nt in 1 869 described
some of the many wonders he saw The offi ce particu
larly aroused lyric raptures $
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ccupyin g a sp ace of 30 x 45 fee t inc lud in g a n
ei gh tfoo t ha ll which s ep ara t es it from the s tora g e d ep a rt
ment an d conta ins a n e le gant s tair wa y lea din g to th e s econ d
s to ry
Divide d into two a p artments by a fros te d gla ss
p artit ion Am ple li gh t is a dmit te d t hrough double reces s
win dows of the b est French gla ss a n d e le gan t cha n de lier
The
g as burn ers d e p en d from th e cei l in g for u s e at n i gh t
de sk s were exp ress ly des i gne d a n d con st ru cte d for t his
offi ce a n d t o g e the r w i t h a ll t he w oo dw ork
are o f s o l i d w a ln u t
The b oo kk eep er s room is hand some ly
carp et e d
A b ea utiful mant e l of marbleized iron w ith
gra te un dernea th th ough the ent ire office is hea t e d by
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w arm air con ducte d from the bo iler room in pp i pe s
The
ceili n gs are bea utiq y fr es coe d an d the doo r knob s an d
lock s gare of w e ll pla te d s ilver
A la rg e c loc k on the
w a ll re gula t es the hours of la bor
The m os t convenient
an d e la bora te bus ines s ofli ce w e ha ve e ver seen
no t
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s urp a ss ed if e q ua le d in t he W es t
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Very different t his from the village forge But
John Deere pas t three score now hi s hair turning iron
gray moved eas ily in it and was a vigorous and comman d
ing part of it all As of old his interest lay chiefly in the
product in its im provemen t in the design of new im ple
ments to fill new needs and to keep abreast of deman d
“
Almost every year in our lon g experience hi s ca ta log
of 1 868 boasted we ha ve dis covered an d applied s ome
”
new feature to our Plows enh ancin g their va lue
So it
had be en in the beginning So he was determined it s h ould
continue O hce a thou sand plows a year had seemed
to hi m a remarkable output ; now more than t ha t number
were produced in a week He stood no more in a lea ther
a pron at the a nvil If the winters were too harsh he rode
on the car s to California and enjoyed the s unshine But
that was bani shm ent Always he was im patient to re
turn to be wh ere h e could obser ve the stru c ture that he
had star t ed and wa tch it win new growth da ily
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Wealth cam e to him as it grew Natura lly He was
plea s ed with tha t He buil t a s ubsta ntial bi g hous e on
the brow of th e bl uff; when ce h e could look out over city
river the smoke of his increas ing plants When com
mi tt ees cam e to him with a ta le of ch urch or chapel to be
built or asking a new market place for the city or a sub
scription for some o t her worthy purpose he was glad to
be the fir s t to give
Not a li tt le of his money went to
es ta blish Sun da y S ch ool s p articularly in $ a n sas Ne
bras ka Dakota and other newer communi ties His prop
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holdings in creased out side of h is own busine ss as
was also na tural Se veral farms came in to hi s po s session
Substa ntial busine ss blocks and several residential proper
tie s in Moline were recorded under his name He wa s an
im portant stockh older in the First Nat ional Bank and in
°
the Moline 69 Ro ck Island hors e railway His wealth wa s
whisperingly guessed a t half a milli on Once long since
the sunset had beckoned hi m with golden promises and
the promise s had been kept An d yet
hi s enduring
interest th e th ough t that he kept ahead of all others the
purpose that ever commanded hi s insta nt attention an d
mea nt more to him than the pili ng up of personal profit
was the construction of new a n d better tools to aid in the
job of Ameri ca n agriculture
He S tarted with a plow One plow of steel A
greatly improved plow In its da y A rather S im p le imple
ment in retrospect He lived to finger through cata logs
of hi s firm that li sted im plements th e very names of which
would have m ystified first farm ers of Illinois $ li s ting plow
“
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s ubsoil plow roo t ground plow bluebeard s teel plow
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” “
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New Dea l gang
Gop h er cultiva tor s carifier Gilpin
s ulky
and in a ddition barrows of many types pota to
digger much more If h e ca red in a moment of reflection
to ta ke credit he could remember tha t he wa s responsible
—
for making Moline th e plow ca pita l of th e world that
hi s plows were shipped to every coun try on th e fa ce of
—
the earth th at th ey were s een on the p am pas of the
Argentine among bushm en of Australia Hottentot s of
South Afri ca mouj iks of Russia The old habit of big
ta lk did not entirely di sappea r as the We s t began to come
of age an d Mark Twain passenger on a Missis sippi st eam
boa t once h eard with a twi nkle and recorded with gusto
er t y
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the remark of a stranger $perhaps one of John Deere s
agents)
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You S how me any country under the s un where they
really know how to plow and if I don t S how you our mark
on the plow they use I ll eat that plow and I won t ask
for any Woos tershyre sauce to flavor it up with
The part that any in dividual plays in the events of his
time can never be more than roughly app raised A man
makes what contribution he can great or small depending
on hi s nature and opportunity Events follow Would
they have followed without him? Who ca n say?Not long
ago the writer of this brief account of the life of John Deere
had occasion to sit in the living r oom of Math Schumacher s
m odern farm home in the Nor t h Platte Valley in far
wes t ern Nebra s ka Math was one of the first settlers
in that part of the countr y He built his soddy there
in the year 1 885 and it was th e only human ha bi ta tion
as far as the sharpest eye could see in a lonely country
of matted buflalo grass and insufli cient rain Math
“
brought out an old photograph of that soddy showing
a long low t wo wi ndo we d shack wi t h a round stovepipe
stickin g through the dirt roof and with Math and h is dog
at the side and eight or ten fat hens flocking about Also
the picture showed the farming tools that Math pioneer
sod buster owned at that tim e They were an axe for
ch ewing hunks of firewood out of the tough cedar logs
brought from the Wildcat Hill s acros s the river and a
plow It was a full twenty years after Math came befor e
a railroad finally found i t s way into what is now one of
the very rich irrigated su gar bee t growi ng ca ttle and
lamb fee din g areas of the country
As oft en happened
on many lonely frontiers it was a plow that broke the way
to eventual wealth
h M
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ai n,
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pa g
31
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AN
I TEM
OF
M A$
18,
1 8 86
issue of May 1 8 1 886 the Moline D ai ly R epu b
lica n carried on it s front page an item stating that John Deere
“
—
died at hi s home in this city at
last evening
and
it went on to give det ails of his life work death The
Vermont blacksmi th an old oak had finally blown over
The pioneer had trekked to his last home Towar d the
sunset still
The city of Moline honored itself by honoring the man
who had long been its foremost citizen For the day of
“
t he funeral
Mayor Sch illinger recommended t hat the
people of this cit y suspend t heir usual business or employ
“
ment
The Ci t y Council r esolved $
We look with
pride upon a grand and noble character so successful in
life so comple t e in deat h
The funeral was held
at
a m on Thursday t he 20th at the Congregational
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Church Flowers wer e banked deep around the plain
ca ske t In middle life his feet had trod often among
p urple liatris physostegia and the wild crimson phlox of
the prairies Bu t on his casket lay a bunch of calla li lies
crossed with a sheaf of ripened grain Near by stood a
“
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floral plow with the inscrip tion John Deere on the
beam The Reverend C L Mor gan conducted the serv
ices putt ing into words what all present knew $
No thing left his shop but spoke the tru t h was jus t as
r ep r esented
He was not a theorizer or one who dealt
in im practicable t hings but in solid facts
The ser vice closed with the hymn Ther e Is a La n d of
Pur e Delig ht
John Deere in life had built his home on the brow of
the bluff In death he was laid away on the brow of the
—
bluff in Riverside Cemeter y as they call i t He loved
wide landscapes And the place of his burial is where
one may look out over t he town the smoke of factories
Wher e one may see many sunsets
t he gr eat r iver
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have been carved for an epita ph on his t ombstone No t
long befor e his dea t h he expressed it in thi s wise to a
friend $
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It is a source of consolation to me to kn ow that I never
willfully wronged any man and that I never put on t h e
market a poorly m ade implement
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His manner especia lly in the later years of his life was
dignified So dignified t hat some people knowing him
only as they s aw him on the streets im agined him to be
cold stern aus t ere He was ver y far from that His
dignity was only the pr otective shell aroun d a warm hea r t
A thin shell easily broken To anyone who had any
claim on his loyalty he was completely loyal To anyone
who had a claim on hi s charity he was more than charita
ble He was not one to obtrude offers of help officious ly
Of an independent disposition himself he honored inde f
e n den c e in o t hers
The
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old
of
a
wo
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kman
who
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when he fir s t came into John Deere s employ rent ed a
house belonging to John Deere Later he bought a house
elsewhere on a ver y small down payment It was a heavy
load for him to carr y Mr Deer e realized how heavy ; and
he was deeply interested Often in passing through the
shop he would stop for a chat with the man ; and almos t
always befor e leaving he would say $
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Have you got that house paid
for
yet Dick?
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And once as if he could no longer r es train himself he
leaned over and whispered $
Dick if you do need any
help on that house don t fail to let me know
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Incidents are revealing But a man after all is kn own
bes t by his works
Deere lived at t hat cri tical hour
when agriculture was jus t beginni ng t o turn from hand
power and fr om anim al power of limi t ed e fi ciency to
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machine methods Old fashioned makeshift plows t o be
sure did continue in use for many years after his s t eel plow
had p roved its worth jus t as old fashioned cradles co n
t inu e d to be used in the gr ain harves t for many years after
the invention of the reaper Ot her ancient methods surf
v i ve d just as some of them do to this very day
But the
main tide had turned Soon ever ywhere there wer e to be
shiny harvesters and threshers whirring mowing machines
grea t combines corn pickers tractors ensilage harvester s
disk barrows plows and tiller s r otar y hoes stalk cutters
single machines doing the work of twenty men
r eleasing labor from the dr udgery and slave aspect of farm
ing
leaving great numbers free t o engage in producing
articles of manufacture and commer ce
extending the
limi t of commodities available for human consumption
increasing leisure
bringing to pass in sh or t an agricu l
tural r evolution in which the las t word has not yet been
written We can see what it means when we are told that
without modern machiner y the production of the 1 93 3
wheat crop alone would have r equired ever y man woman
and child in the United States and millions more besides
Much of all this came after John Deere s time In t he
beginning of it in the setting of t he sails for the long voyage
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h e was a mighty figure
No farming implement is more essential than t he plow
It was t h e plow in modern form t hat his genius gave to the
world
That achievement must be r eckoned one of t he major
accomplishments in t he agricultural revolut ion
For any man that is enough
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