Moline, IL…A Bit of Wisdom from John Deere the inventor of first commercially successful steel plough. John Deere February 7, 1804 – May 17, 1886

“I cut the teeth off the mill-saw with a hand-chisel. I cut a pattern out of paper for the moldboard and share. I laid the pattern on the saw and cut out around it with a hand chisel, with the help of a striker and a sledge. I then laid the piece on the fire of the forge and heated it, a little at a time, shaping it as best I could with the hand hammer. After making the upright standards out of bar iron, I was ready for the wood parts. I went out to the timber, dug up a sapling, and used the crooks of the roots for handles. I shape the beat out of a stick of timber with an axe and a drawing-knife. In this fashion, I succeeded in constructing a very rough plow.”

“It is a source of consolation to me to know that I never willfully wronged any man and that I never put on the market a poorly-made implement.”

“[In 1837 on making his first steel plow] She’s finished.”

“Strike while the iron is hot.”