Grain drills get going in the Midwest
Van Brunt sows new seeds for Deere & Company
When two brothers (George and Daniel Van Brunt) patented a design for a
combination seeder and cultivator, the Van Brunt Manufacturing Company was born.
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Admired
for its fine detail, this 1930s Vindex 1/16-scale cast-iron toy of a John Deere-Van Brunt
grain drill measures almost 10 inches long and features individual discs for each row. ©
2000 Denny Eilers
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The year was 1860…long after the grain
drill had achieved popularity in the eastern United States.
Brothers hate bad birds
Why design a grain drill? For one thing, farmers needed to get small
grains seeded into the ground with enough cover to prevent flocks of passenger pigeons
from eating them almost immediately. Millions of these birds plagued farmers in the
Midwest and Northwest until around 1910 when the birds’ presence seemed to diminish
somewhat.
Why not use a planter? If you read last
week’s column, you’d know that Deere & Mansur didn’t build its
first planter until the 1880s!
The other reason for designing a grain drill is speed. Prior to the
Civil War, the hand rotation sower was most common in the Midwest. It was worn around the
neck of the farmer who walked through the fields. At a common walking gait, sowing could
be done at the rate of six acres per hour, said one advertisement. What’s more, this
process was very ineffective on windy days, when the seed was scattered unevenly.
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Van Brunt Manufacturing gave
John Deere its line of grain drills from 1911 to 1970, when production was transferred to
the Des Moines Works factory. The large item on the right is the end of a seed box. The
stamped-metal pieces simulating ashtrays are inscribed with "John Deere," the
leaping-over-the-log trademark, and these words: "Sample of Material Used in John
Deere Van Brunt Steel Box Drills." The other item is an employee work badge. ©
1999 Nick Cedar
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A
Wisconsin winner
In 1861, the brothers’ factory moved from Mayville to Horicon,
Wisconsin. George left the company soon after the relocation, leaving Daniel in control.
He ran the company until his death in 1901 and was succeeded by his son, Willard, who
would ink the deal with Deere a decade later.
By 1866, production reached 1,300 seeders and the Van Brunt name soon
earned a worldwide reputation for excellence. In the 1880s, the company also operated
briefly under two other names: Van Brunt & Wilkins Manufacturing Company and Van Brunt
& Davis Company.
Deere makes a deal
Van Brunt dominated the first decade of the nineteenth century until
Deere decided to approach them about consolidating.
The instigator in this process was C.C. Webber, head of the Minneapolis
branch and all too familiar with Van Brunt’s rule in the upper Midwest and Plains
states. In June 1911, the two parties agreed and Deere acquired Van Brunt.
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These two wrenches belong to
the Van Brunt line of grain drills. The top tool is the original wrench from 1911, while
the bottom one commemorates the 75th anniversary in 1986. © 1999
Nick Cedar
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John Deere attached its name to Van
Brunt’s in order to maximize the good will of the brand in the drill business. Their
designs were widely respected for both reliability and accuracy.
The factory remained in Horicon, Wisconsin until 1970 when production
was transferred to Des Moines Works in Iowa, where John Deere grain drills are made yet
today.
John Deere no longer uses the Van Brunt name, having achieved its own
reputation for excellence in grain drills.
Next week, The Green Girl branches into buggies and wagons
with a 2-part series on an early part of the product line for Deere.
Many other "Related Company"
names can be found in this category, including Fort Smith Wagons, the Moline Wagon
Company, Davenport Wagon Company, Reliance Buggy Company, and the Mansur & Tebbetts
Implement Company. Learn what these names meant to Deere!
| Ý A Deere drill before Van Brunt?
Grain drills can be traced back to
primitive Assyrian designs as early as 680 B.C. says one source. But it took until the
1840s for the drill to reach the U.S. And even then, it was concentrated on the East Coast
only. In fact, the grain drill didn’t achieve popularity in the Midwest until the
1860s.
That’s why it’s surprising
to note that William A. Ayres says he bought a grain drill on March 22, 1851 for $80 from
Deere, Tate & Gould, an early partnership between John Deere, Robert Tate, and John
Gould. The trio had recently joined forces just after Deere made the move to Moline from
Grand Detour.
A Deere advertisement in the August
1851 issue of the Prairie Farmer called it a "Seymour’s grain drill," which
was a well-known Eastern machine. The award-winning design was touted in the ad as
follows:
"This machine is the invention
of a practical man, a good mechanic, and the result of several years’ travel and
experience. It possesses one advantage that we think makes it superior to any other, and
is very important in a seed sower, i.e.: the readiness with which the person tending it
can see whether any of the droppers (or tubes) failed to deliver the grain regularly, as
they are all in plain sight and under the eye of the driver. From its peculiar
construction, therefore, a failure to deliver the seed constantly cannot occur."
(Quote from John Deere’s Company, page 96)
Yet after 1853, there is no mention
of grain drills in any advertisements, ledgers or journals of the company. Still, this
represents a significant benchmark for Deere’s product development. Many years later,
Deere would return to grain drill manufacturing with the acquisition of the Van Brunt line
in 1911. And today, Deere is widely respected for its line of grain drills, which includes
the world-famous 750 No-Till Drill introduced in the 1980s. |
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This pocket-sized piece of
literature promotes the Model "FB" Fertilizer Grain Drill from John Deere-Van
Brunt. Judging by the Model A tractor shown with cushioned armchair seat, electric start,
and lights, this brochure is from 1947. © 1999 Nick Cedar
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This is a John Deere-Van Brunt
one-horse drill Model X, U.S. Patent # 1506820#V51368. It’s a 5-hole unit made from
1913 to 1919. It will cost you at least $600 to own this incredible piece of
history…that’s the current bid on eBay. © 2001 eBay Auction |
Text and photos © 2001 Brenda Kruse unless
otherwise indicated.
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