| The adventurous Velies All in the family The Velie name became a part of the Deere dynasty when John Deere’s 20-year-old daughter Emma married 30-year-old Stephen H. Velie in 1860.
Velie was a New Yorker who had come to Rock Island in 1853 to work with C.C. Webber. Just three years later, Velie joined his father-in-law (John) and brother-in-law (Charles) at the John Deere Plow Works. What was a small, regional operation when he joined it in 1863 grew into a prominent national enterprise upon his death in 1895. As a close friend and confidant to Charles Deere, Velie served as secretary/chief financial officer, helping develop the plow business for 32 years. According to Wayne Broehl, author of John Deere’s Company, Stephen Velie was "the judicious, cautious numbers-oriented financier," lending stability to the wide-ranging CEO (Charles Deere). When the firm officially incorporated as "Deere & Company" on August 15, 1868, Stephen Velie was one of only four individuals to be issued capital stock. Following John Deere’s death in May 1886, Stephen Velie, Sr., was the second largest stockholder in the Company—with 20% compared to Charles Deere’s 49.8%. In the early 1880s, Stephen Velie became part owner of the Minneapolis branch business, Deere & Webber Company, and Deere, Wells & Company, the branch house in Council Bluffs, Iowa/Omaha, Nebraska. By 1894, he added ownership of the Union Malleable Iron Company, a foundry in Moline, to his growing list of responsibilities. Velie became well-known as a stickler for product quality. He had been quoted: "I have noticed that whenever we have departed from the principle or practice of using the best stock of its kind to save money on first cost, it has been at the cost of reparations and annoyances that are not fully compensated for by the money saved." Like father like sons Stephen Velie, Sr.’s three sons--Charles Deere Velie, Stephen H., Jr., and Willard L.--all eventually went to work for the Deere organization.
Oldest son Charles Deere Velie worked at the Minneapolis branch, Deere & Webber, during the bicycle craze of the late 1890s. Working with C.C. Webber, Charles Velie was considered the bicycle product specialist during the brief manufacturing stint. Charles Velie also played a major role in the acquisition of the Waterloo Boy tractor line in 1918. According to John Deere’s Company, he tried to assure Butterworth in a letter: "For your own peace of mind, I want to say that the Waterloo business is being looked at very closely by Webber and myself here…I am more than satisfied we have made the best move Deere & Company has ever made, and that it was an extremely fortunate thing we were able to buy this plant. I believe if we handle this proposition right, the Waterloo Boy will be to the tractor trade what the Ford car is to the automobile trade. Of course the Ford tractor will take first place, but if we can take second place that will be good enough for us." By 1892, the Kansas City branch house was incorporated as the John Deere Plow Company and Stephen, Sr.’s son, Stephen Velie, Jr., was given a minority position. He became full-fledged manager of the Kansas City branch on November 1, 1904. His biggest supporter was C.C. Webber of Minneapolis, who more than once defended young Steve to Charles Deere.
Stephen Velie, Jr. went on to found the Velie Saddlery Co. of Kansas City, which made saddles, collars and harnesses for horses. With his brother, Willard, he helped launch the Velie Carriage Company of Moline, which made 21,000 buggies and surreys in 1907 alone. He later became vice-president of Velie Motor Vehicles which manufactured an early automobile. Willard L. Velie, youngest son of Stephen, Sr., graduated from Yale in 1888. He then headed for the Big Sky Country of Montana where he met and married his college roommate’s (William Flowerree) sister, Annie Flowerree. Willard quickly became a key Deere employee, serving in a number of capacities in the management of the company. When William Butterworth became president of Deere & Company in 1908, Willard was elected as vice-president. According to Wayne Broehl’s book John Deere’s Company, "Willard had emerged as the spokesman for his side of the family (neither of his two older brothers, Stephen, Jr., nor Charles, had become a major force in top management; neither was on the board). Willard was the link between generations, a close associate of Charles Deere for decades, long a potent force in the top echelon of the firm." In 1911, the Company’s new articles of incorporation and bylaws called for the creation of an Executive Committee, chaired by Willard Velie. This would later become quite controversial in the battle for power and management of the business.
That same year, Willard Velie had formed the Velie Engineering Company to make motor trucks. Five years later, it merged with the automobile company as Velie Motors Corporation, and began making a tractor — the Velie Biltwel 12-24, a four-cylinder tractor powered by a Velie-built engine. Despite this potential conflict of interest, Willard Velie was a staunch supporter of Deere’s acquisition or development of a tractor. At a director’s meeting on March 5, 1912, Willard Velie surfaced as the leader of Deere’s tractor movement. He stated: "In view of the inevitable future use by farmers for diverse purposes of gasoline and kerosene tractors…a movement to produce a tractor plow should be started at once, having in view constantly that the success of the same would be enhanced if not assured, were it possible to divorce the tractor from the plow and thus make it available for general purposes." (excerpted from John Deere’s Company by Wayne Broehl). Six years later, Deere acquired the Waterloo Boy tractor line. For the most part, Velie’s manufacturing ventures had remained clearly separate of Deere’s lines, except that some of his automobiles had been marketed through Deere’s branch houses. Still, he began receiving flak in 1914 for his divided responsibilities — as chairman of the executive committee at Deere and running his carriage firm and automobile business. Unfortunately, Willard Velie and CEO William Butterworth mixed as well as oil and water. After numerous run-ins and aggravations, W.L. Velie sent a terse, 3-sentence letter to Butterworth on May 20, 1918: "I am under the impression that I am Chairman of the obsolescent Executive Committee of Deere & Company. In this case, please consider this my resignation of such, and as a member of the Committee as well. I will remain Director of the Company until I have disposed of my holdings therein." The Great Depression significantly affected not only Deere’s sales of equipment, but also the makeup of its board of directors. In April 1921, Willard Velie penned a one-line resignation: "My personal and more important interests under existing conditions will require of me all the thought and effort that I care to expend." That left Willard’s brother, Charles, C.C. Webber’s colleague in the Minneapolis branch, the only Velie family member involved in the management of the company. Next week, The Green Girl will explore the specific products manufactured by the Velie family. From carriages and cars to trucks, tractors and even airplanes and saddles…the Velies were a busy bunch! Text © 2000 Brenda Kruse. |
