History of John Deere Company
1837 John Deere fashions a polished-steel plow in his Grand Detour, Illinois, blacksmith shop that lets pioneer farmers cut clean furrows through sticky Midwest prairie soil.
1838 John Deere, blacksmith, evolves into John Deere, manufacturer. Later he remembers building 10 plows in 1839, 75 in 1841, and 100 in 1842.
1842 John Deere adds retailing to his business, filling orders for the Patent Cary Plow.
1843 Deere and Leonard Andrus become "co-partners in the art and trade of blacksmithing, plow-making and all things thereto…"
1848 The growing plow business moves to Moline, Illinois, 75 miles southwest of Grand Detour. Moline offers water power and transportation advantages. Deere chooses a new partner, Robert N. Tate, who moves to Moline and raises the rafters on their three-story blacksmith shop by July 28.
1849 A work force of about 16 builds 2,136 plows.
1852 Deere buys out his partners. For the next 16 years, the company is known variously as John Deere, John Deere & Company, Deere & Company, and Moline Plow Manufactory.
1853 Sixteen-year old Charles, Deere's only living son, joins the firm as a bookkeeper following graduation from a Chicago commercial college.
1858 The business totters during a nationwide financial panic. Maneuverings to avoid bankruptcy shuffle ownership and managerial arrangements. John Deere remains president, but power passes to 21-year-old Charles Deere. He will run the company for the next 49 years.
1863 The company makes the Hawkeye Riding Cultivator, the first Deere implement adapted for riding.
1864 John Deere obtains the company's first actual patent for moulds used in casting steel plows. Another follows in a few months and a third the next year.
1867 Charles Deere sues Candee, Swan & Co., a competitor, for trademark infringement. The case has precedent-setting implications for trademark law. Could Deere preempt the word "Moline" which it has been using in its advertising, so that no similar product could incorporate
1838 John Deere, blacksmith, evolves into John Deere, manufacturer. Later he remembers building 10 plows in 1839, 75 in 1841, and 100 in 1842.
1842 John Deere adds retailing to his business, filling orders for the Patent Cary Plow.
1843 Deere and Leonard Andrus become "co-partners in the art and trade of blacksmithing, plow-making and all things thereto…"
1848 The growing plow business moves to Moline, Illinois, 75 miles southwest of Grand Detour. Moline offers water power and transportation advantages. Deere chooses a new partner, Robert N. Tate, who moves to Moline and raises the rafters on their three-story blacksmith shop by July 28.
1849 A work force of about 16 builds 2,136 plows.
1852 Deere buys out his partners. For the next 16 years, the company is known variously as John Deere, John Deere & Company, Deere & Company, and Moline Plow Manufactory.
1853 Sixteen-year old Charles, Deere's only living son, joins the firm as a bookkeeper following graduation from a Chicago commercial college.
1858 The business totters during a nationwide financial panic. Maneuverings to avoid bankruptcy shuffle ownership and managerial arrangements. John Deere remains president, but power passes to 21-year-old Charles Deere. He will run the company for the next 49 years.
1863 The company makes the Hawkeye Riding Cultivator, the first Deere implement adapted for riding.
1864 John Deere obtains the company's first actual patent for moulds used in casting steel plows. Another follows in a few months and a third the next year.
1867 Charles Deere sues Candee, Swan & Co., a competitor, for trademark infringement. The case has precedent-setting implications for trademark law. Could Deere preempt the word "Moline" which it has been using in its advertising, so that no similar product could incorporate