John Deere 1837, was a blacksmith in Grand Detour, IL. who wanted to make farmers’ jobs a bit easier.

In 1837, He created the first steel plow.

In 1848, as demand rose, Deere moved the business from Grand Detour to Moline, IL.

Deere was labeled a “raging abolitionist,” known to break up pro-slavery meetings

In Moline, Deere is thought to have helped finance the Moline African Methodist Episcopal Church, which was relocated to property just below his own residence in 1880.

In 1886, the second son of John Deere, Charles Deere, took over the company leadership before his father’s passing that same year.

Alvah Mansur was educated at the Lawrence Academy in Groton, Massachusetts. His first business venture was in the hardware business in Moline, Illinois, where he met the plow manufacturer, John Deere. He became connected with John and Charles Deere in 1859.

In 1877, Alvah Mansur and Charles Deere formed a corporation in Moline to manufacture corn planters, called Deere & Mansur Company. The corn planter employed a new rotary planting mechanism; the company made a profit of $10,000 in its first year and $48,000 in 1882.

The planter company was operated separately from the plow company in a small two-story building in Moline.

In 1887, Deere & Mansur introduced the Center Lever Corn Planter (the one in our collection). This machine featured a center lever, designed to easily raise or lower the runners. The lever could be accessed by hand or foot to accommodate farmers that had lost limbs in the Civil War.

By 1899, Deere & Mansur was recognized as the largest planter manufacturer in the world.

In 1911, Deere & Mansur was acquired by Deere & Company.

The first planter design in 1877 was a horse-drawn 2-row planter. Horse-drawn planters of that era used a sled-style marker to create a grid on the field. The grid ensured uniform rows, which made cross-cultivation easier, keeping the field weed-free. Two people (often a farmer and his son) operated the planter. Parallel lines were etched into the soil on the first pass; lines were then etched at right angles on the second pass. On the third trip, the boy (sitting on the planter, also called "The Dropper") jerked a lever at each intersection, dropping seeds into the furrow. Wide wheel rims tamped the soil as the planter passed.