John Deere
John Deere was born on February 7, 1804 in Rutland, Vermont. At the age of seventeen he became an apprentice to a blacksmith who only paid him $30 a year for room and board, clothes, and instruction on reading writing and arithmetic. In 1825 he married Demarias Lamb and became the father of nine children. Not all of his children lived pact the age of infancy. When he turned thirty-three he moved out west to Grand Detour, Illinois in search of better work. A year later his wife and five children moved out there too. He became a blacksmith and later began experimenting with new plow designs. In 1838 he finally began to sell steel plows to farmers. Then in 1846 increasing demand led his to partner Leonard Andrus to produce more plows. In the next few years steel plow sales were booming and became more and more popular.