Who did John Deere call "dear"? As they say, behind every successful man is a strong woman…and that’s certainly the case with John Deere.
Women were always very important to John Deere. His first influence was from his mother (Sarah Yates Deere). The second woman in his life was his first wife Demarius Lamb. She gave him six daughters before passing away. John later married her sister Lucenia as his second wife. Mother knows best In honor of Mother’s Day yesterday, let’s learn more about the strong-willed Sarah Yates Deere, John’s mother. Born in Connecticut around 1780, young Sarah was known as Sally when she married William Rinold Deere, a tailor in Middlebury, Vermont. In 1808, William heard of a family inheritance to be claimed back in England, but he was lost at sea on his return trip, leaving 30-year-old Sarah in charge of a tailoring business and five children, including a 4-year-old John. Sarah worked hard to support her family, trusting in God to provide for them. As he grew up, John took jobs to help out his family financially. In 1821, John turned 17 and began an apprentice position with a local blacksmith named Capt. Benjamin Lawrence. The 4-year schooling gave John room and board as well as a small stipend of $30 the first year, and $5 more each year thereafter. Sadly, his mother died just after he finished his apprenticeship. She was just 46 years old and never met the woman her son would choose to marry. When a man loves a woman At a social gathering, John fell in love with a beautiful and proper young woman named Demarius Lamb. From an affluent family, Demarius most likely led a very different life from the hard-working labor young John faced. Still, John worked hard to establish himself in the blacksmith business before he proposed to Demarius. The wedding was held on January 28, 1827, and a year later, she gave birth to the first of the couple’s nine children, Francis Albert. That’s when John bought his own piece of property and built his first blacksmith shop in Leicester. Unfortunately, a fire wiped him out soon after. Still, he rebuilt…only to be destroyed by fire again. These disasters left the family deep in debt.
Daughters dear to his heart And in 1830, the family grew when daughter Jeannette was born. John was forced to move his family several times over the next few years in order to find work that would support his wife, son and daughter. Two years after the birth of their first daughter, they welcomed a second, Ellen Sarah. In 1833, John finally found a way to buy another piece of property for his own blacksmith shop in Hancock. The next year, another daughter, Frances Alma, arrived and a fifth on the way. Times were tough all over Vermont and the economic strife called the "Panic of 1837" was about to strike. John’s mounting debts led him to make a difficult decision —Ýmove to Illinois for a fresh start in hopes of bringing prosperity to his family. The 32-year-old left his family and his debts behind in Vermont and headed off for Illinois with just $73 in his pocket. Demarius stayed behind to raise his four children while she was 6 months pregnant with son Charles. While it seems rather ironic that Deere’s own mother and wife were forced to be single parents of several young children, it was not uncommon for women to be left behind while the men sought out new opportunities in the west. Fortunately, John found success as a blacksmith in Grand Detour, Illinois. And after introducing his self-scouring steel plow in the summer of 1837, he decided to send for his family to join him. Demarius and their five children traveled with her sister and her family on a challenging 6-week cross-country trip. Their arrival would be the first time John saw his own son Charles, now a year old! The family settled into life in Grand Detour while John worked day and night to build his business. Obviously, Demarius was a very understanding woman as she was still in charge of raising their family. In fact, the family continued to grow! Within a few years, another daughter, Emma Charlotte was born (1840), as well as third son, Hiram Alvin, in 1842. Just two years later, a fifth daughter, Alice Marie, joined the Deere family tree.
Then tragedy seemed to strike the Deeres. While Demarius was pregnant with Alice, 2-year-old Hiram died. A year after Alice, Demarius delivered a stillborn baby. And just three years after that, Deere’s oldest child, 20-year-old Francis Albert died mysteriously and suddenly in 1848. Shortly after this last loss, the family moved from Grand Detour to Moline, in hopes of finding a better location for John’s growing plow business. Finally, the family began to enjoy the benefits of wealth and success. Yet, tragedy did not elude them. Their 17-year-old daughter Frances Alma died in 1851. That same year, Demarius gave birth to their ninth child, Mary Frances. Sadly, this daughter also died in infancy. Despite all the deaths within their family, the Deeres also had some cause for celebration. Oldest daughter Jeannette married a Moline lawyer named James Chapman in April 1851. Jeannette outlived James, making it to age 86, and even enduring a lawsuit from a gold-digging doctor out of New York! Also in 1851 (December), 19-year-old daughter Ellen Sarah married 32-year-old Christopher Columbus Webber. After 14 years of marriage and five children, C.C. died in 1865, leaving Ellen a single parent, much like her own mother and grandmother. One of their sons, Charles C. Webber would later become an influential vice-president of Deere & Company. Ellen died at age 65 after a stroke left her an invalid for a few years. Daughter Emma Charlotte married Stephen Henry Velie in 1860. Father John gave Stephen several powerful positions within his business. The couple had four sons and a daughter. Two of the sons later became branch managers. And son Willard also followed in his father’s footsteps as well as launched his own ventures involving vehicle manufacturing. Emma escaped the harsh Midwestern winters of Moline for a sunnier California climate. She died at age 70 in 1911 of vitamin B-12 deficiency. A daughter-in-law entered the John Deere family when son Charles married Mary Little Dickinson in 1862. Youngest daughter Alice Marie married Merton Yale Cady in January 1865. The "Yale" in her husband’s name referred to the family manufacturing business of "Yale Locks." Merton himself was a talented architect and designed many buildings still standing in Moline today. Alice and Merton had two children, but neither got involved in their grandfather’s business. After father John died in 1886, youngest daughter Alice inherited his fancy hilltop home known as Red Cliff. Alice died at age 55 in 1900 after several years battling a fatal disease of the brain. Her husband died of pneumonia just four weeks later. They gave the home to their daughter as a wedding present. Apparently, the 3-story home featured bathrooms (considered a luxury back then) as well as a unique type of air conditioning system that circulated cool air from underground. A mourning man takes another wife About a month after Alice married Merton, her mother Demarius died, nearly reaching the age of 60. Several months after mourning her death, John traveled back to the Lamb family homestead in Vermont. According to some family stories, John sought the hand of the daughter of Capt. Benjamin Lawrence, the blacksmith he’d apprenticed for as a young man. When he discovered she was not available, John befriended Demarius’ younger maiden sister, Lucenia, age 58. In 1866, John and Lucenia married in Granville, Vermont, and returned to Moline where they shared 20 years together before his death in 1886. * Much of this material came from a presentation by Curtis G. Linke, VP Corporate Communications, Deere & Company from The Gathering of the Green in Moline on March 5, 2000. Text Ý © 2001 Brenda Kruse. Photos by Brenda Kruse unless otherwise noted. |
