John Deere History: Deere & Company, founded in 1837, grew from a one-man blacksmith shop into a worldwide corporation that today does business in more than 160 countries and employs approximately 43,000 people worldwide. John Deere is one of the oldest industrial companies in the United States. The story of John Deere, who developed the world's first commercially successful, self-scouring steel plow, closely parallels the settlement and development of the Midwestern United States, an area that the homesteaders of the 19th century considered the golden land of promise. John Deere's steel plow proved to be the answer pioneer farmers needed for successful farming in what was then "the West." But John Deere's contribution to the growth of American agriculture far exceeded just the development of a successful steel plow. It was the practice of that day for blacksmiths to build tools on order for customers. But John Deere went into the business of manufacturing plows before he had orders for them. He would produce a supply of plows and then take them to the country to be sold - an entirely new approach to manufacturing and selling in those early pioneer days, and one that quickly spread the word of John Deere's "self-polishers."