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Deere was born in 1804 in Rutland, Vt, a tailor's son. After a brief stint at Middlebury College - his mother's idea - he opted instead for an apprenticeship with a blacksmith, which he completed in 1825. For 11 years, he worked as a blacksmith, both for hire and in his own shops. His specialty was tool manufacture, and he was well-known throughout the region for his hay forks and shovels.
However, a combination of bad luck (fire destroyed his shops on at least two occasions) and bad timing (flagging economies in the eastern states in the 1830s) finally forced him to seek a fresh start in the West.
That start came in Grand Detour, 111., west of Chicago, where he found work at a sawmill operated by another Vermont expatriate, Leonard Andrus. Blacksmith services were in great demand in Great Detour, and Deere's business soon flourished. In short order his family - including a new baby, Charles - joined him in Illinois.
On a visit to the Andrus mill in Grand Detour, Deere spied a broken saw blade on the floor. The blade, polished by repeated trips through a saw, served as inspiration for what would become the self-scouring plow.
In 1848, Deere moved his growing enterprise to Moline, gaining better access to the transportation of raw materials. Five years later, he was joined in the business by the son who was born in Vermont after his father had left for Illinois. Charles Deere, then 16, continued with the Deere company until his death in 1907.
By the end of the Civil War, John Deere's involvement in the company he founded had diminished. He died in 1886 at age 82, but his commitment to quality workmanship endures today, in the form of a leading international manufacturing concern.
"I will never put my name on a plow that does not have in it the best that is in me." -John Deere