• Handicapped Accessible   •   Elevator, Ramps & Chair-lift   •   Ample Parking

Those Things Deere to His Heart

By Dan Harshman

It’s not much of a stretch to call our Museum eclectic. Some of this has to do with the many different stories we are trying to tell, some of it has to do with the guy that was allowed to curate it, and then some of it just comes from the things a local person might have collected. 

Tucked in a corner on the second floor of the Museum, is such a collection. Long-time Edinburg resident Robert “Nick” Davis enjoyed collecting anything that had to do with John Deere tractors and equipment. Our exhibit is made up of some of Nick’s collection that was given to us after his passing by his sister Jean Allen Davis. 

Many of you will remember Jean Allen as one of the Founding Board Members of the Edinburg Heritage Foundation and the co-author of The History of Edinburg VA. She and Nick were also my next door neighbors on Center Street for many years.

While the name John Deere doesn’t have any direct connection to Edinburg, it certainly has a connection to the agricultural community that our Mill served in the past.

John Deere, the man, was born on February 7, 1804 in Rutland Vermont. After briefly attending Middlebury College, he began an apprenticeship with a blacksmith in Middlebury at the age of 17. He went on his own as a blacksmith in 1826. He had his own shop in a number of Vermont towns before leaving the state in 1836 and moving to Grand Detour, Illinois.

He had no difficulty finding work immediately due to a lack of blacksmiths in that area. Deere soon found that the typical cast iron plows of that time did not work very well in the hard prairie soil the farmers were faced with. 

 As a child, Deere had helped in his father’s tailor shop in Vermont. One of his jobs was to polish the sewing needles by running them through sand. Thinking about how smoothly the polished needles traveled through fabrics, he concluded that a highly polished steel plow with a correctly shaped moldboard would work better in the hard and sticky clay of the prairie.

After experimenting with various versions of his steel plow, he developed and manufactured the first commercially successful cast-steel plow in 1837. With its wrought-iron frame and polished steel share it worked better than any other of the plows available. Deere sold his first steel plow to a local farmer in 1838; and word of its success quickly spread. 2 neighbors soon ordered plows and by 1841 Deere was making 75-100 plows per year.

In 1843, Deere had partnered with Leonard Andrus to produce more plows to keep up with demand. The partners didn’t always agree on how to grow the business and Deere decided to move to Moline, Illinois in 1848. Moline was a transportation hub on the Mississippi River, and by 1855 Deere’s factory was selling more than 10,000 of his plows. It became known as The Plow that Broke the Plains.

Deere always insisted on making high-quality equipment. He once said, “I will never put my name on a product that does not have in it the best that is in me.” Deere & Company was incorporated in 1868 and the day-to-day operation was being handled by Deere’s son Charles. John Deere began focusing his attention on civil and political affairs and served as the mayor of Moline from 1873-1875. He passed away on May 17, 1886.

Put prior to that, the Company registered its iconic logo of a leaping deer in 1876. Deere & Company entered into the tractor business in the early 1900s, and by 1912 decided to design its own tractor. Joseph Dain Sr. directed the design of the tractor and Deere’s board of directors voted to build 100 tractors of his design in 1917; the name is later changed to the All-Wheel Drive.

In 1918 Deere & Company purchased the Waterloo Gasoline Engine Company, which made the popular “Waterloo Boy” tractor at its factory in Waterloo, Iowa. Deere & Company sold tractors under the “Waterloo Boy” name until 1923. At that time they began building and selling their own brand of tractors, with the John Deere Model D being a popular model.

Deere & Company and their John Deere brand continued to grow over the years and by the 1950s became a multinational company when they purchased a share of a German tractor company and purchasing property in Monterrey, Mexico. In the 1980s Deere built a factory in Iowa that made extensive use of computers and robots, enabling them to run numerous small assembly lines simultaneously.

By the late 20th century, Deere & Company became the largest American manufacturer of farm equipment. By the early 21st Century their impact grew to be the largest agricultural machinery company in the world.

 But none of this would have probably mattered to Nick Davis. I can still remember him flagging me down to show me his latest Christmas or birthday gift. It might have been a pocket watch or a pocket knife. Whatever it was, it was sure to be green and yellow with a leaping deer front and center. Stop in the Museum and check out some of the things that were “Deere” to his heart. 

 As Jean Allen wrote in the Forward of The History of Edinburg, VA, “Small towns are the heartbeat of America, filled with colorful personalities, lots of interaction and a warm and wonderful sense of community.” 

It is truly a pleasure to be able to share this small part of our community with all of you.