John Deere

John Deere was born in Vermont in 1804.  At the age of 17 he became an apprentice blacksmith.   In 1925 he opened his own blacksmith business.    In 1927 he married and had five children.  His business was doing badly, so he sold it to his father-in-law and moved to Illinois.   Being the only blacksmith in Grand Detour he had a good business.  He noticed that the farmers were having a difficulty plowing their fields with the cast iron plows used at the time.  Deere had worked with polished needles to sew leather.  He concluded that formed polished steel would go through the hard Illinois earth easier then cast iron.  He made his first plow in 1838 and by 1841 he had sold between 75-100 plows.

If you want to read the rest of the story this website http://www.farmlifeeasier.com/2009/03/30/the-story-of-john-deere.htmlwill give you all the information.  I found this to be a very interesting article and well worth reading.