THE GRAND DETOUR PLOW COMPANY
Grand Detour, a town that was described as being situated in a
horse- shoe bend and ideally located six miles above Dixon on the
beautiful Rock river. It would be the site for the Grand Detour Plow
Company which was established in 1837.
The company was founded by John Deere and Leonard Andrus in a
small blacksmith shop equipped with two forges, which at the time
were sufficient to meet their needs for some two years. They would
then become able to run an ordinary horsepower, to enable the turning
of a grindstone and fanning of the furnace.
The building utilized for those labor saving arrangements was
located some distance from the factory itself. This meant that every
plow which was ground and cast molded had to be carried, either in
hand or on the shoulder between the two locations. It was said that,
"The sight of the two proprietors lugging their work back and forth
was a point of interest, in view of the great prosperity which each
of them had attained through hard work and close management that they
ultimately had earned."
In 1839, John Deere built ten plows, and by 1842 he was turning
out plows at the rate of two a week. It would take another six years
before steam was put in and from that time forward they would
continue to add machinery and make improvements to the manufacturing
process. However, the means to send their plows through the country
was handled only by wagons and there were only a few markets except
for the farm house in even the best agricultural sections.
Teams would be loaded and sent over the country and many of the
farmers were supplied with plows in this fashion which they sold
through the communities they lived in, reserving a handsome
commission for their services. In 1846 Mr. Deere withdrew from the
firm and along with the experience that he had acquired and the means
at hand, started a plow factory at Moline, Illinois, which ultimately
grew and prospered.
In the meantime the town of Grand Detour had lost its pristine
glory and the bright promise of becoming a huge town was gone
forever. But it was still a pleasant little village on the Rock
river, but all that there seemed to be was the Grand Detour Plow
Works and their dependencies. Dixon in the meantime had acquired two
of the largest railroads in the union and had now grown to be a city
with a population of seven thousand people.
In its first years the plow works had only turned out
seventy-five to a hundred plows per year, and now were producing many
thousands and shipping them by means of the iron horse over the vast
expanse of the west. Dixon was the nearest point for the railroad and
the company was spending thousands of dollars a year just to
transport the huge quantity of plows from the factory to the rail
cars. The decision to move the company to Dixon was made and the move
took place in 1869.
It was June, 1874 when Orris B. Dodge became interested in the
business, and the firm was then Cumins, Noble & Dodge. In June,
1879, the business was incorporated under Illinois laws as the Grand
Detour Plow Company. Theron Cumins, Henry T. Noble, Orris B. Dodge
and Charles H. Noble being the officers of the company at the time.
The works were located on a spacious triangular piece of land
between the depots of the Chicago & Northwestern and Illinois
Central railroads, with switches from both roads running to the shops
and warehouses. From the start with the location of the shops in
Dixon, large additions to the factory and storage buildings were made
from year to year. New and improved machinery was added from year to
year and by so doing, the quality of goods was improved and the cost
lessened. Employment in the facility had now reached 200 workers.
A fire destroyed several buildings of the complex in 1888 with
the recovery of the firm happening in a short time, and once again
thousands of plows and farm implements were being produced. The
company was rapidly becoming well known for the products which were
produced. At the turn of the century some 300 workers were now
employed. J. I. Case Company purchased the facility during 1919 and
operated the plant until forced to close it during the depression
year of 1932.
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