See how an Iowa man rounded up full set of horse-drawn John Deere sickle-bar mowers to complete his impressive collection.
JR Pearson knows the rare satisfaction of completing a collection. As owner of The Barns museum in Marcus, Iowa, he recently acquired the last horse-drawn John Deere sickle-bar mower — a one-horse mower — that he needed to complete his display of a full line of Deere mowers.
One-horse mowers are more rare and therefore more difficult to find than two-horse models. Typically, they were used for maintenance tasks, such as mowing a lawn. JR spent a few years finding one that was affordable and in good enough condition to merit restoration.
Horse-drawn sickle-bar mower use began shortly after the American Civil War in the 1860s and continued for decades. According to Lynn R. Miller’s The Horsedrawn Mower Book, the earliest sickle-bar mowers began to appear in about 1845. Early mower brand names included Whitely’s, Walter A. Wood, J. Cumming and C. Aultman & Co.
While John Deere horse-drawn mowers were well known across the U.S., Deere was not the original designer of the mower. Deere & Co. was established in 1837, re-incorporated in 1867 and again on April 7, 1911. The re-incorporation included a consolidation of Deere & Mansur Co., producing corn planters; Syracuse Chilled Plow Co., specialized plows; Dain Mfg. Co., hay tools; Moline Wagon Co., wagons; Kemp & Burpee, manure spreaders; Van Brunt Mfg. Co., grain drills; and Marseilles Co., force-feed automatic corn shellers and grain elevators.
These manufacturing facilities, plus 22 sales organizations, gave Deere & Co. a full line of implements and a nationwide distribution system. The merger benefited the manufacturers and their customers, who could then purchase all their farm machinery needs from a single John Deere dealership.
The Dain connection
Deere & Co. first established a presence in Iowa in 1900 in Ottumwa through Dain Mfg. The Dain hay tool operation was at that point the second largest factory in Ottumwa. Born near London in Ontario, Canada, on May 3, 1859, Joseph Dain moved as a child with his parents to Meadsville, Missouri. As a youth, he was interested in the primitive methods of hay harvesting then in use and began to think of ways to improve existing hay machinery designs.
Dain’s first inventions included the automatic stacker and sweep rake. While his products took time to catch on, within a few years the market became increasingly enthusiastic. In 1881, he was granted his first patent and launched a manufacturing operation in Springfield, Missouri. In 1883, he built a plant in Armourdale, Kansas. Four years later, in 1887, he built a mower plant in Carrollton, Missouri. At the time of his death on Oct. 31, 1917, Dain was vice president of Deere & Co. The Dain name was one of the few trademark names to endure after the company’s acquisition by Deere & Co.
Deere & Co. completed construction of a new factory in Moline in 1913, just in time to capitalize on booming agricultural machinery sales driven by World War I. Annual production figures in 1915 reported manufacture of 11,600 grain binders, 2,500 corn binders and 72,000 sickle-bar mowers.
A 1916 Deere advertisement boasted that the John Deere Dain mower and John Deere sulky rake were in a class by themselves. “The main frame of the John Deere Dain mower is made of specially selected material in one solid piece. More liberally proportioned than ordinary mower frames, it is heavier and more substantial. The simplicity of the gear construction lessens friction and lightens the draft. The entire gear mechanism consists of but three pieces, arranged so that the thrust of one pair of gears equalizes the thrust of the other pair, thus eliminating all side wear and strain on the bearings.”
The advertisement noted that any moving part of the John Deere Dain mower could be removed and replaced in minutes. “This means a whole lot to you in the busy season. With most ordinary mowers, you would lose a day or perhaps longer in hauling it to a blacksmith’s shop for repairs or adjustments. With a John Deere Dain mower, you take out the part in the field and lose no time. The weight of the cutter bar is carried on the wheels by means of a large adjustable coil spring. All weight is used for traction, friction is avoided, draft lessened, and cutting power of the mower increased.”
An ad in a 1924 issue of Wallace’s Farmer and Iowa Homestead reported that the mower’s 21-point clutch put action into the knife instantly. “The special arrangement of the simple three-piece driving gears supplies an abundance of even, smooth power to the accurately fitted knife. Its great cutting power and the ease with which the horses take it through the heaviest hay will appeal to you.”
A 1923 ad claimed that operators were likely to appreciate lifting the mower bar with a foot lift to pass over boulders and stumps and in turns at corners. “It’s really boy’s play to operate the John Deere,” the ad crowed.
Closed-gear design found few buyers
From 1915 to 1921, Deere built a small number of mowers featuring an enclosed, dust-proof drive gear with an oil-filled case. For unknown reasons, that feature was not well received by farmers. Closed-gear mowers were discontinued in 1921 and did not reappear until 1934, when the enclosed-gear No. 4 model was introduced. A year later, Deere offered the No. 3 mower. The two new mowers were very similar to the No. 1 and No. 2 models, but the No. 4 was heavier and was available with wider cutting widths. The last ground-drive sickle mower to leave the Deere factory was manufactured in 1948.
Lowell Grave of Hartford, South Dakota, a well-known mower collector who has acquired some 100 sickle-bar mowers over the past 34 years, says a few John Deere enclosed-gear mowers have surfaced with no model number on them. Those, he says, were likely among the experimental closed-gear models the company first manufactured.
“I have one of those mowers in my collection,” Lowell says. “There is no model number on it. No one is sure why farmers didn’t like the enclosed gears, but they didn’t sell well and that’s why so few were made. We often think that John Deere, because they’re such an old company, was ahead of all the early implement designs, but that wasn’t always the case.”
Checking all the boxes
JR’s display includes four John Deere two-horse mowers, one John Deere one-horse mower and one Dain model. He found the Dain mower in Hartington, Nebraska. The model appears to have been manufactured at about the time Deere & Co. purchased Dain Mfg.
His No. 1 John Deere mower came from Sheboygan Falls, Wisconsin. The model was manufactured from 1921 until 1935. When JR found it, the mower still had the original dolly wheels and wooden tongue. This model was manufactured in 4-1/2, 5- and 6-foot widths.
His No. 2 mower came from Cleghorn, Iowa, complete with all its original parts. The No. 2 was added to the line in 1921 and was similar in design to No. 1. The difference was a stronger frame, higher wheels and wider tires. The wide wheels gave more traction, which helped keep the mower from sinking into soft or wet soils and added to the power of the cut. The No. 2 was available in 5-, 6-, and 7-foot widths.
“My No. 3 mower came from South Sioux City, Nebraska,” JR says. “And I found the No. 4 in Waverly, Iowa. I bought my one-horse John Deere mower from Elmer Kaufman in Shipshewana, Indiana. As I understand it, the Dain mower I have and the John Deere No. 1 were manufactured the same year.”
At the time Deere acquired the Dain company, the design of the mower, which included a foot pedal that allowed the operator to lift the sickle bar during turns, meant the operator could keep both hands on the reins of the team. This foot lever lifted the sickle to a nearly vertical position for transport.
Other than the name change from Dain to Deere, mowers coming from the Deere factory in Moline were basically the same for many years. Today, they are an important part of the display at The Barns. “I’m happy to have the display for museum visitors,” JR says. “It helps bring to life the realities of what it was like to farm with horses.” FC
For more information or to schedule a visit to The Barns, call JR Pearson (712) 229-4809 or email him at pearson41@evertek.net.
Loretta Sorensen is a lifelong resident of southeast South Dakota. She and her husband farm with Belgian draft horses and collect vintage farm equipment. Email her at sorensenlms@gmail.com.
