1804 – 1886
John Deere
The Vermont blacksmith whose shiny plow changed farming.
The Story
John was a blacksmith in Vermont, then moved west to help pioneers on the prairie.
Their old iron plows kept getting stuck in the thick, sticky prairie soil.
John hammered out a plow from bright polished steel that sliced right through.
Suddenly farmers could grow food on land that had been too hard to plant.
His green-and-yellow tractors still work on farms all over the world.