| (1803
- 1886) |
| Inducted: |
1983 |
| Region: |
MidWest |
| Industry: |
Manufacturing
Agriculture |
|
John Deere built a good business in Illinois by fabricating shovels, hoes, and pitchforks. But his customers complained that the rich, Midwestern soil clung to the iron and wooden plows from the East, making farming very tedious. Deere then produced his "singing plow," made of polished steel. In 1848 he moved to Moline, Illinois, a major transportation center. By the mid-1860s he was manufacturing a broad variety of plows and other equipment that opened the American Midwest to wide-scale farming. Deere & Company are the largest manufacturers of agricultural equipment in the world. |
