100 Years of John Deere – Waterloo Celebrates!

June 15-16, 2018, was time for a big 100 Years of John Deere celebration in Waterloo Iowa.  Keith and I were in town to see John Deere celebrate 100 years of tractor production.  Being John Deere collectors ourselves, we were excited to participate in the activities. We headed to both the Waterloo Convention Center and Public Market Courtyard and the John Deere Tractor & Engine Museum.

100 Year Celebration

To understand the reason for the 100-year celebration, you have to go back to 1918. This is when the John Deere Company decided to get into the tractor business. When John Deere turned his eye to adding tractors to his production line, he looked at the Waterloo Gasoline Engine Company. The Waterloo Gasoline Engine Company was started by a group of men along with John Froelich. Froelich is credited with inventing the very first tractor. (After our visit to Cedar Falls and Waterloo, Keith and I stopped in Froelich Iowa. Like Paul Harvey used to say, “Stay tuned for the rest of the story!”)

Tractors and gas engines

When the tractors didn’t take off and the Waterloo Gasoline Engine Company started manufacturing gas engines, John Froelich became disenchanted and left the company.  Engine production flourished. Then in 1913, the company revisited tractor production. They introduced a line of tractors and eventually producing the very popular Waterloo Gasoline Engine Company.  In 1918, everyone was looking to the Waterloo Gasoline Engine Company and for John Deere. They seemed the perfect choice to bring tractors to their company production line. The two companies came to an agreement, and the era of John Deere tractors began.

Tractors on display

It didn’t take us long after arriving at the Waterloo Convention Center and Public Market Courtyard, to see people we knew.  We soon ran into Todd Beisiegel. A collector and restorer from the Belleville, Illinois area, Todd brought a very special tractor to the event. He brought his dad’s John Deere 330 standard. He also brought the first John Deere styled L built.  We also saw friend Bill Miller. Then we spied Green Magazine’s editors Richard and Carol Hain, so we were in good company.  We also saw Deere’s Brian Holst and family that works at Deere!

The event

The event was a one of a kind.  There were events for the kids and music and collectibles for the adults. There was an array of John Deere tractors on display inside the Convention Center. We enjoyed the “John Deere Through the Decades” display. These tractors were separated by decades. Above the tractors were timelines with events that took place during that time period and popular icons of the time. There was a great quote by John Deere that they had on the 1918 – 1938 timeline. “We have got to change and make an improvement, or somebody else will beat us and we will lose our trade.”

Elvis and Deere!

One of my favorite pictures was of Elvis in a dance move right beside a Deere! I think I really liked this because at one time I got to write a story about a tractor that had belonged to Elvis. A group of students at a trade school restored it.  Keith had a grand time checking out all the tractors and trying to find just the right “100 year” collectibles to take home.

Blackhawk Hotel and more

We spent the night at the beautiful Blackhawk Hotel. Located in downtown Cedar Falls, on a hosted visit we were treated like royalty!

Besides the Convention Center, 100-year celebrations were also taking place at the John Deere Tractor and Engine Museum. In fact, because parking downtown was limited, many came and parked at the museum. Then, they boarded trolleys to the Convention Center.  We did this on Saturday morning, and it worked like clockwork.  When visitors walked in the door of the museum, the first thing they saw was a beautiful Waterloo Boy. The banner above it said, “John Deere Tractors at 100 Legend Runs on”.

There were activities both inside and outside the museum.  I made Keith pose for pictures just like a little kid.  We posed with a John Deere 620 against a John Deere background. Despite the hot, hot, hot day, it was great fun. Keith tried some of the homemade ice cream made by hit and miss engines. We walked admired the very cool John Deere grain elevator. Together we admired the new book Corn Pickers that Phyllis and Bob Johnson have written that they have already several printings made on!

The blacksmith from the John Deere Historic Site was on hand. He shared information about blacksmithing and kids had inflatables to play on.  Inside, everyone was able to cool down and learn details of the Deere and Waterloo agreement and see seriously beautiful Deere machinery.

The 100 Day Event will go down in history. It will be one that collectors will be talking about in years to come.  I think these pictures and these items will be something that collectors’ years from now will be pulling out. The lucky ones will be saying, “I remember, I was there…”

I will smile knowing what it was like and that I saw it all unfold with my own eyes! Check out other John Deere stories on my blog!