John Deere (inventor)
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John Deere was an American blacksmith and manufacturer who founded Deere & Company, one of the largest and leading agricultural and construction-equipment manufacturers in the world. Born in Rutland, Vermont, Deere moved to Illinois and invented the first commercially successful steel plow in 1837.
Early John Deere plow, circa 1845, made in Grand Detour, Illinois, displayed at The Henry Ford Museum
The John Deere House in Grand Detour, Illinois, built 1836
A monument in Middlebury, Vermont marking the shop in the town where John Deere learned the blacksmith trade
Merton Yale Cady
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Merton Yale Cady was a prominent architect and builder in Moline, Illinois. He designed various buildings at Chicago World's Fair in 1893, and designed the Riverside Cemetery in Moline. He designed Cast-iron structures and number of buildings for his father-in-law, John Deere, and his enterprise, Deere & Company.
Redcliff Manor, past residence of John Deere, was inherited by Merton Yale Cady's wife
Villa Velie in Moline, Illinois, built in 1921 by his nephew, Willard Lamb Velie, grandson of John Deere
Deere Row apartment building, designed by Cady in 1872, converted into Washington Square project in Moline