A letter from Boston dated June 26, 1808, states that William Deere, Sr., was waiting to set sail for England. Apparently, a family inheritance was at stake and he’d hoped to improve his financial standing as a result. Another story says that he went to buy goods for his tailoring shop.

Unfortunately, that was the last his family ever heard from him. But family legend has it that he made it back to England and was lost at sea returning to the States. Still another story claims his trunk arrived in England, but he did not. True, many such tragedies occurred during this time as ship travel across the Atlantic was rather risky in those days.

The first confirmation of Father Deere’s absence can be found in the 1810 census, where Sarah "Sally" Deere listed herself as the head of the household, which had now grown to five children under the age of 10.

Although John Deere’s own dad was not around while he was growing up, John did have a father figure in Captain Lawrence, the blacksmith he apprenticed with as a young man.

If William Deere was looking down from heaven on John’s life, the father had to be very proud of his son. From his extensive family and community life to his busy blacksmith business and the famed self-polishing plow invention, John was certainly a son any father would be honored to have raised.

Next week, we’ll turn up the heat and ask the mirror on the wall who’s the "deerest" of them all as The Green Girl looks at promotional thermometers and mirrors.