Wheels: John Deere

Fall harvest seems like a good time to talk about tractors, and John Deere rises to the top of the popularity spectrum, even among those who have little to do with agriculture.

According to the company website, John Deere, the man whose name became immortalized in tractors and equipment, was born in 1804 in Rutland, Vt. He was raised by his single mother, following the loss at sea of his father when John was 4 years old. He became a blacksmith and in 1836, joined an exodus heading to the Midwest in search of opportunity. Settling in Illinois, he set up shop in Grand Detour, where he learned that local farmers were struggling with their cast iron plow blades in the sticky prairie soil.