American Entrepreneur who invented the steel plow and founded Deere & Company.
He began working as a blacksmith's apprentice at age 17.
His company John Deere was worth more than $40 billion in 2010.
He had nine children - Francis Albert, Jeanette, Ellen Sarah, Frances Alma, Charles, Emma Charlotte, Hiram Alvin, Alice Marie and Mary Frances - from two separate marriages.
He and Henry Ford were both Gilded Age entrepreneurs.
