July 7, 2025 • 10 mins
On this episode of Our American Stories, John Deere wasn't always a household name. Before tractors transformed American agriculture, he had one revolutionary idea: a steel plow that could cut through tough prairie soil. Kirk Higgins of the Bill of Rights Institute shares the story of how John Deere got his start, how one piece of scrap metal transformed the West, and how the green tractors bearing his name continue to shape farming in the U.S.A. today.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:10):
And we continue with our American stories. Up next, the
story of the man who tamed the soil of our
heartland and became the founder of a company whose products
most can recognize solely because of their green coat of paint.
Here's Kirk Higgins, the senior director of Content at the
Bill of Rights Institute, with the story of John Deere.
Speaker 2 (00:36):
The green machines are instantly recognizable across America. Tractors, combines, balers,
lawnmowers painted in that distinctive bright green coat with yellow accents.
Even from a distance, most people know who made them,
John Deere. For the past one hundred and eighty seven years,
John Deere has been an American business success story. The
(00:58):
company's technology tame the soil of America's heartland, helping make
it possible for us not just to expand to the West,
but thrive there too and realize our prairie's great potential.
But who was John Deere, Not just the company and
the brand, the man behind it all. John Dene was
(01:28):
born in February of eighteen oh four in Vermont. He
never really knew his father, who, in eighteen oh eight
set sail for England. He never returned and was presumed
to have drowned during his voyage. His mother was left
alone to raise the family. Growing up in near poverty
meant that young John looked for work to help support
the family from an early age. As a young teenager,
(01:48):
in exchange for some money, a pair of shoes, and
some old clothes, he took a job at a tannery.
At seventeen, Deer would receive his mother's blessing to leave
home to apprentice under Captain Benjamin Lawrence, a reputable Vermont blacksmith.
It was long, hot and difficult work, but it was
excellent on the job training for Deer. He was also
paid for his work thirty dollars for his first year,
(02:11):
in additional five dollars for each year that followed. By
eighteen twenty six, Deer was ready to end his apprenticeship
and begin working to support his own growing family. Over
the next several years, he would continue working as blacksmith,
producing various household items like pots and pans, to shoeing horses,
to furnishing ironwork for stage coaches and mills. Work was
(02:34):
easy to come by, but tragedy would strike again. Deer's
blacksmiths shop would burn down, not once but twice. The
first time dented his bank account, the second time put
his family in serious debt. Then, in eighteen thirty six,
Deer received a summons from the village of Leicester demanding
(02:56):
he paid seventy eight dollars and seventy six cents to
a lie under. Not paying it would mean at best,
losing his land, and at worst he could face debtor's prison.
In the United States of eighteen thirty six, declaring bankruptcy
was not an option, and if someone like Robert Morris,
one of America's founders and a signer of the Declaration
of Independence, could end up in a debtor's prison for
(03:18):
three years, so could a Vermont blacksmith like John Deere.
The economic climate in Vermont had become challenging too. The
state had faced years of deforestation and grasshopper plagues, and
significant losses to the fertile soil. John Deere was truly
(03:39):
stuck between a rock and a hard place, and while
lost to history, whether it was his debts, the threat
of prison, or the failing soil that motivated him, Deer
left Vermont in eighteen thirty six with just seventy three
dollars in his pocket. And made his way to Grand Detour, Illinois.
At thirty two, he was starting his life over. Deer
rented some land on a river, set up a smithy,
and his family joined him in their new home within
(04:01):
a year. To say, his services were in demand, and
Grand Detour under sells the need they were essential. During
the first half of the nineteenth century, the fertile expanse
of the western prairies drew thousands of settlers. With this
rapid growth came a growing demand for skilled tradesmen blacksmith's
who could show the oxen needed for plowing, create knives
and silverware, and repair broken tools needed to run farms.
(04:23):
John Deere could do it all and the two things
he hadn't left behind in Vermont. His diligent work, ethic,
and eye for perfection served him well and were noticed
by many. A clerk who worked across the street from
dear smithy recalled, I had heard Deer's hammering in the
morning when I was in the store in bed at
four o'clock, and at ten o'clock at night. He had
such an indomitable determination to do and work what he
(04:46):
had in his mind. He would soon set his mind
to his next challenge taming the difficult Midwestern soil that
was giving farmers fits. Many farmers in the region were
accustomed to the dryer, pebbly soil New England, but the
soil in the Midwest was often very different. It was sticky, clumped.
Some farmers spent more time knocking soil off their plows
(05:08):
than actually plowing, and the problem was threatening to send
many farmers back east. John Deere was intimately familiar with
the problems farmers were having. After all, it was his
job to fix their broken plows, and in eighteen thirty seven,
just a year after having moved to Illinois, John Deere
thought he had a solution. Dear reason that a highly polished,
curved plow blade would cut through the soil easily and
(05:30):
that dirt would not stick to it. So he took
a broken steel saw blade, cut and molded it and
created his first prototype of a steel self cleaning plow,
and was met with plenty of skepticism from local farmers.
But can you blame them. The farmers had suffered through
backbreaking labor trying to make a living day in and
day out. It would have been hard to believe that
(05:52):
any device could cut easily through the thick, sticky prairie soil.
Let alone a device and neighbor had made out of
scrap metal, but Deer was committed to working on his concept.
That same year, when John Deere tested the plow, his
biggest critics would turn out to watch. They stood in
silence as Deer walked it up and down a friend's
field without stopping. According to one account, a farmer looked
(06:16):
at the blade afterwards and exclaimed, by cracky, she's clean.
But the plow wasn't just clean, he was light, light
enough for a strong man to carry. Could this really
be the beginning of the end for the heavy, oxen
driven plows Midwestern farmers needed to make a living? For
eight thousand years, the plow had roughly remained the same.
(06:37):
But here was something truly astonishing. But the year after
Deer demonstrated his new plow, you could count on one
hand the number he sold. Three. The following year he
filled ten orders. The truth of the matter wasn't that
Deer was a bad salesman or that his product wasn't
good enough. It was that steel was hard to come by.
Most of it had to be imported from England. Also,
(06:59):
Deer neither had had the money nor the capacity to
fashion more than a handful of plows a year. As such,
Deer would continue the day to day routine of blacksmithing
anything and everything needed for the local community until he
decided to risk everything and place his bets entirely on
his plow. It was a decision that worked out for him.
He began to manufacture his plows in advance and recruited
(07:22):
farmers to help sell his plows on commission, and exhibited
a model with the signed self polisher in front of
his shop. The business model, much like his plow, was
novel for the time. Most businesses made their products when
orders came in. Also, Deer's idea of displaying models of
equipment that were not for purchase was really a new concept.
Deer wasn't just a good blacksmith, he was a natural businessmith,
(07:44):
and in eighteen forty six Deer manufactured about one thousand
plows and had a factory. Deer and his company eventually
outgrew Grandee to Illinois, so in eighteen forty seven, Deer
established a plow factory in Moline, Illinois, on the banks
of the Misis. Building a factory in Molene made it
easy for Deer to import steel for Pittsburgh, as well
(08:05):
as to increase his distribution range. Riverboats could now swing
right by the factory. By eighteen fifty six, Deer's Molein
plowworks was producing thirteen thousand plows a year. Molene remains
the global headquarters for the John Deer Company to this day.
The years of Molene were not all easy for John Deere.
He battled copycat manufacturers and had problems managing expanding dealer network. Still,
(08:29):
as Deer's business continued to grow, it became a family affair.
His second oldest son, Charles, began working for the business
at the age of sixteen. In eighteen fifty eight, when
he was just twenty one years old, Charles Deer assumed
primary management duties for the company, and he would guide
it for nearly half a century. Charles, for his part,
was an incredible businessman. He'd traveled to farms to demonstrate
(08:50):
his father's products in action, and in the eighteen seventies
had one of the company's products, a cornplanter painted green
and yellow. In nineteen eighteen, when the company released its
first marketable tractor, it became standard for all John Deere
products to be painted that way. As for John der himself,
even as he reduced his role at the company he founded,
he'd stay plenty busy in the community. He even served
(09:11):
as mayor of Molem. Politically, there was a Whig, a
staunch abolitionist and supporter of Abraham Lincoln. Interesting side note,
John Deere met Abraham Lincoln during one of Lincoln's most
important cases as the trial lawyer. In eighteen fifty six,
a steamboat named F. E. Afton crashed into the Rock
Island Bridge, the first railroad bridge over the Mississippi River.
(09:32):
The steamboat owners sought damages, and the case sparked national attention.
It pitted steamboats against railroads and raised questions about whether
the railroad bridges were dangerous for boats. Lincoln was one
of the attorneys representing the railroad company, and Deer testified
on the company's behalf Lincoln in The railroad company ultimately prevailed,
which paved the way for railroads to further open the
West to development. Over time, John Deere and his company
(09:56):
helped make that development possible too. Deer's products were helping
to tame the prairies and were supporting small and large
scale farming that helped make America the bread basket of
the world. John Deere died on May seventeenth, eighteen eighty six,
at the age of eighty two. A legendary businessman and
inventor who had helped tame the prairies, was gone, but
(10:16):
his story was far from over. The company that coined
the slogan nothing runs like a deer is indeed still
running one hundred and eighty seven years after its founder,
A hard working blacksmith by trade who overcame adversity and
fought his way to success, demonstrated a single handmade plowed
on a borrowed field and a special.
Speaker 1 (10:35):
Thanks to Kirk Higgins. He's the senior director of content
at the Bill of Rights Institute. The story of John Deere,
the blacksmith who transformed America's prairies here on our American
Stories
And we continue with our American stories. Up next, the
story of the man who tamed the soil of our
heartland and became the founder of a company whose products
most can recognize solely because of their green coat of paint.
Here's Kirk Higgins, the senior director of Content at the
Bill of Rights Institute, with the story of John Deere.
Speaker 2 (00:36):
The green machines are instantly recognizable across America. Tractors, combines, balers,
lawnmowers painted in that distinctive bright green coat with yellow accents.
Even from a distance, most people know who made them,
John Deere. For the past one hundred and eighty seven years,
John Deere has been an American business success story. The
(00:58):
company's technology tame the soil of America's heartland, helping make
it possible for us not just to expand to the West,
but thrive there too and realize our prairie's great potential.
But who was John Deere, Not just the company and
the brand, the man behind it all. John Dene was
(01:28):
born in February of eighteen oh four in Vermont. He
never really knew his father, who, in eighteen oh eight
set sail for England. He never returned and was presumed
to have drowned during his voyage. His mother was left
alone to raise the family. Growing up in near poverty
meant that young John looked for work to help support
the family from an early age. As a young teenager,
(01:48):
in exchange for some money, a pair of shoes, and
some old clothes, he took a job at a tannery.
At seventeen, Deer would receive his mother's blessing to leave
home to apprentice under Captain Benjamin Lawrence, a reputable Vermont blacksmith.
It was long, hot and difficult work, but it was
excellent on the job training for Deer. He was also
paid for his work thirty dollars for his first year,
(02:11):
in additional five dollars for each year that followed. By
eighteen twenty six, Deer was ready to end his apprenticeship
and begin working to support his own growing family. Over
the next several years, he would continue working as blacksmith,
producing various household items like pots and pans, to shoeing horses,
to furnishing ironwork for stage coaches and mills. Work was
(02:34):
easy to come by, but tragedy would strike again. Deer's
blacksmiths shop would burn down, not once but twice. The
first time dented his bank account, the second time put
his family in serious debt. Then, in eighteen thirty six,
Deer received a summons from the village of Leicester demanding
(02:56):
he paid seventy eight dollars and seventy six cents to
a lie under. Not paying it would mean at best,
losing his land, and at worst he could face debtor's prison.
In the United States of eighteen thirty six, declaring bankruptcy
was not an option, and if someone like Robert Morris,
one of America's founders and a signer of the Declaration
of Independence, could end up in a debtor's prison for
(03:18):
three years, so could a Vermont blacksmith like John Deere.
The economic climate in Vermont had become challenging too. The
state had faced years of deforestation and grasshopper plagues, and
significant losses to the fertile soil. John Deere was truly
(03:39):
stuck between a rock and a hard place, and while
lost to history, whether it was his debts, the threat
of prison, or the failing soil that motivated him, Deer
left Vermont in eighteen thirty six with just seventy three
dollars in his pocket. And made his way to Grand Detour, Illinois.
At thirty two, he was starting his life over. Deer
rented some land on a river, set up a smithy,
and his family joined him in their new home within
(04:01):
a year. To say, his services were in demand, and
Grand Detour under sells the need they were essential. During
the first half of the nineteenth century, the fertile expanse
of the western prairies drew thousands of settlers. With this
rapid growth came a growing demand for skilled tradesmen blacksmith's
who could show the oxen needed for plowing, create knives
and silverware, and repair broken tools needed to run farms.
(04:23):
John Deere could do it all and the two things
he hadn't left behind in Vermont. His diligent work, ethic,
and eye for perfection served him well and were noticed
by many. A clerk who worked across the street from
dear smithy recalled, I had heard Deer's hammering in the
morning when I was in the store in bed at
four o'clock, and at ten o'clock at night. He had
such an indomitable determination to do and work what he
(04:46):
had in his mind. He would soon set his mind
to his next challenge taming the difficult Midwestern soil that
was giving farmers fits. Many farmers in the region were
accustomed to the dryer, pebbly soil New England, but the
soil in the Midwest was often very different. It was sticky, clumped.
Some farmers spent more time knocking soil off their plows
(05:08):
than actually plowing, and the problem was threatening to send
many farmers back east. John Deere was intimately familiar with
the problems farmers were having. After all, it was his
job to fix their broken plows, and in eighteen thirty seven,
just a year after having moved to Illinois, John Deere
thought he had a solution. Dear reason that a highly polished,
curved plow blade would cut through the soil easily and
(05:30):
that dirt would not stick to it. So he took
a broken steel saw blade, cut and molded it and
created his first prototype of a steel self cleaning plow,
and was met with plenty of skepticism from local farmers.
But can you blame them. The farmers had suffered through
backbreaking labor trying to make a living day in and
day out. It would have been hard to believe that
(05:52):
any device could cut easily through the thick, sticky prairie soil.
Let alone a device and neighbor had made out of
scrap metal, but Deer was committed to working on his concept.
That same year, when John Deere tested the plow, his
biggest critics would turn out to watch. They stood in
silence as Deer walked it up and down a friend's
field without stopping. According to one account, a farmer looked
(06:16):
at the blade afterwards and exclaimed, by cracky, she's clean.
But the plow wasn't just clean, he was light, light
enough for a strong man to carry. Could this really
be the beginning of the end for the heavy, oxen
driven plows Midwestern farmers needed to make a living? For
eight thousand years, the plow had roughly remained the same.
(06:37):
But here was something truly astonishing. But the year after
Deer demonstrated his new plow, you could count on one
hand the number he sold. Three. The following year he
filled ten orders. The truth of the matter wasn't that
Deer was a bad salesman or that his product wasn't
good enough. It was that steel was hard to come by.
Most of it had to be imported from England. Also,
(06:59):
Deer neither had had the money nor the capacity to
fashion more than a handful of plows a year. As such,
Deer would continue the day to day routine of blacksmithing
anything and everything needed for the local community until he
decided to risk everything and place his bets entirely on
his plow. It was a decision that worked out for him.
He began to manufacture his plows in advance and recruited
(07:22):
farmers to help sell his plows on commission, and exhibited
a model with the signed self polisher in front of
his shop. The business model, much like his plow, was
novel for the time. Most businesses made their products when
orders came in. Also, Deer's idea of displaying models of
equipment that were not for purchase was really a new concept.
Deer wasn't just a good blacksmith, he was a natural businessmith,
(07:44):
and in eighteen forty six Deer manufactured about one thousand
plows and had a factory. Deer and his company eventually
outgrew Grandee to Illinois, so in eighteen forty seven, Deer
established a plow factory in Moline, Illinois, on the banks
of the Misis. Building a factory in Molene made it
easy for Deer to import steel for Pittsburgh, as well
(08:05):
as to increase his distribution range. Riverboats could now swing
right by the factory. By eighteen fifty six, Deer's Molein
plowworks was producing thirteen thousand plows a year. Molene remains
the global headquarters for the John Deer Company to this day.
The years of Molene were not all easy for John Deere.
He battled copycat manufacturers and had problems managing expanding dealer network. Still,
(08:29):
as Deer's business continued to grow, it became a family affair.
His second oldest son, Charles, began working for the business
at the age of sixteen. In eighteen fifty eight, when
he was just twenty one years old, Charles Deer assumed
primary management duties for the company, and he would guide
it for nearly half a century. Charles, for his part,
was an incredible businessman. He'd traveled to farms to demonstrate
(08:50):
his father's products in action, and in the eighteen seventies
had one of the company's products, a cornplanter painted green
and yellow. In nineteen eighteen, when the company released its
first marketable tractor, it became standard for all John Deere
products to be painted that way. As for John der himself,
even as he reduced his role at the company he founded,
he'd stay plenty busy in the community. He even served
(09:11):
as mayor of Molem. Politically, there was a Whig, a
staunch abolitionist and supporter of Abraham Lincoln. Interesting side note,
John Deere met Abraham Lincoln during one of Lincoln's most
important cases as the trial lawyer. In eighteen fifty six,
a steamboat named F. E. Afton crashed into the Rock
Island Bridge, the first railroad bridge over the Mississippi River.
(09:32):
The steamboat owners sought damages, and the case sparked national attention.
It pitted steamboats against railroads and raised questions about whether
the railroad bridges were dangerous for boats. Lincoln was one
of the attorneys representing the railroad company, and Deer testified
on the company's behalf Lincoln in The railroad company ultimately prevailed,
which paved the way for railroads to further open the
West to development. Over time, John Deere and his company
(09:56):
helped make that development possible too. Deer's products were helping
to tame the prairies and were supporting small and large
scale farming that helped make America the bread basket of
the world. John Deere died on May seventeenth, eighteen eighty six,
at the age of eighty two. A legendary businessman and
inventor who had helped tame the prairies, was gone, but
(10:16):
his story was far from over. The company that coined
the slogan nothing runs like a deer is indeed still
running one hundred and eighty seven years after its founder,
A hard working blacksmith by trade who overcame adversity and
fought his way to success, demonstrated a single handmade plowed
on a borrowed field and a special.
Speaker 1 (10:35):
Thanks to Kirk Higgins. He's the senior director of content
at the Bill of Rights Institute. The story of John Deere,
the blacksmith who transformed America's prairies here on our American
Stories
Host
Lee Habeeb
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