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Centennial celebrations John Deere’s blacksmith business reaches 100 years John Deere’s business grew from a humble blacksmith shop in 1837 to "a pillar in the farm equipment field and a giant among the nation’s industries" by 1937.
That’s how an article in Implement and Tractor from January 9, 1937, described Deere’s accomplishments. Below is the introduction to a story that pays tribute to this great man: "A hundred years ago tiny sparks were flying from an anvil in Grand Detour, Illinois. They flickered for a moment, then their lights went out. But they were giving life to the vision of a master craftsman, and blazing the way to the development of a rich prairie agricultural empire between the Alleghenies and the Rockies. "It was the anvil of John Deere, the blacksmith. "His year-old establishment in 1837 presented nothing outstanding to the visitor; it lacked any particular physical individuality. It was but another typical blacksmith shop of its day, meagerly equipped with such bare essentials as an anvil, a forge and a frame for shoeing oxen. "But there was an invisible difference—its human equipment—John Deere, the man, the worker, the thinker. "The story of the steel plow is the story of John Deere, the man, whose physical strength and character were as strong as the granite in the hills of his native Vermont. "It is the story of John Deere, the worker, whose anvil resounded from the early morn far into the night, and for whom fifteen hours was a normal working day.
"It is the story of John Deere, the thinker, who learned what the farmers needed and thought his way through to attainment; for whom disappointments were but a spur to further endeavor. "Measured against the background of history, the life span of a man is short, even in young America. A brief flash in the arena of the living and men pass on to their rewards, while time rolls on unceasingly to dim their memories. Only those, who as John Deere lived lives of accomplishment, attain enduring fame. "John Deere answered his final summons more than half a century ago. Few are left who knew the man. The products which bear his name to the far corners of the world are being built and merchandised principally by the third generation to reach the scene since his passing. "The mighty arm that swung the smithy’s hammer had little time to use the pen. His life history he wrote only in inanimate creations of steel and iron. The biographers and historians of the mid-nineteenth century were not visiting humble blacksmith shops on the nation’s agricultural outskirts nor little factories in its hinterland. "Fame that thus rests wholly on the achievements of an active life is the most enduring. Such is John Deere’s. "It was the same human equipment with which this 32-year-old Vermonter endowed his blacksmith shop, along with a total capital of seventy-three dollars and seventy-three cents, that eventually was to provide the solid foundation for the eighty million dollar institution now perpetuating his name and fame—a pillar in the farm equipment field and a giant among the nation’s industries." Next week, we’ll continue to celebrate the life of John Deere with a birthday tribute in honor of his birthday on February 7, 1804. During February, The Green Girl will continue coverage of Deere’s life and the growth of his business up to his centennial celebration as documented in this special edition of Implement and Tractor magazine.
Copyright 2002 Brenda Kruse |
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