I got enough poetic ideas for three or four vacations last year and this is the first one. Once again, I visit one of my favorite subjects after visiting the John Deere Historical site in Grand Detour, IL, where among other things, I learned that Mr. Deere entered politics later in life, served as mayor of Moline, IL, and was a supporter of another famous Illinois politician. The Lincoln Connection strikes again.

Mr. Deere left Vermont

and came to the big bend

in the Rock River.



Where he fixed a prominent man's

mill wheel and built a plow

that broke open the prairie soil.


A simple man whose polished plow

made him a man of means.

He left the Grand Detour for a place by the great river.

And like many a man of means, he became a man of affairs.


There was a man from Kentucky,

younger than Mr. Deere,

who came to Illinois by way

of the flatboats on the Wabash.

He split rails and read for the law,

he rode the circuit and ran for Congress.


The tall, gaunt man in the stovepipe hat

received many a man's vote.

There were fewer votes between Springfield and Moline back then,

which is why one of those votes

was the creator of the plow's.


Mr. Deere is revered

by those who till the land,

mow the grass, move the arth.


His Congressman was also honored

after his career and he seems to link

All great men from the Prarie State