John Deere was an established blacksmith in Vermont in the 1830s? After The Panic of 1837, which was a financial crisis in the United States that touched off a major depression, Deere and his family headed west landing in Grand Detour, Illinois.

He started over in his new home and opened a blacksmith shop once again. Watching local farmers having problems with their plows, due to the sticky prairie soil that needed to be scraped off the blade every few feet, Deere was convinced that a different material and shape of the blade would solve the farmers problem.

He found a broken steel sawblade and began crafting history. His success was achieved by re-shaping the blade and paying great attention to the exact curvatures of the plow blades.

After Deere’s groundbreaking innovation…nothing was ever the same in the farming industry. By 1849 John Deere’s business was booming producing 2000 plows a year. Now nearly two centuries later Deere’s business is a driving force in the agricultural world today.