February 3, 1819 - Stephen McCormick, of Faquier Court House, VA, received a patent for a "Plough"; cast iron plow with detachable components; introduced concept of replaceable and standardized parts; January 28, 1826 - received second patent for a "Plough"; December 1, 1837 - received third patent for a "Plow"; cast-iron mould board had an adjustable wrought-iron point mounted beneath, able to decrease the draft, while deepening the furrow, and breaking up the soil more effectively.

November 23, 1835 - Henry Burden, of Troy, NY, former superintendent of the Troy Iron and Nail Factory, recieved a patent for "Making Horsehoes"; horseshoe manufacturing machine capable of making sixty horseshoes a minute, produced shoes more rapidly and uniformly than the hand production method which had been used prior to this invention; made nearly all the horseshoes used by the Union calvary during the Civil War.

August 31, 1836 - African-American inventor, Henry Blair of Glenross, MD, received a patent for a "Cotton-Planter"; cotton seed planter.

1837 - John Deere developed, manufactured first cast-steel plow in Grand Detour, IL; 1855 - sold more than 10,000 plows; February 21, 1865 - John Deere, of Moline, IL, received a patent for "Improvement in Plows" ("Improvements in Landside and Share Plates for Plows"); 1868 - John Deere's business incorporated under the name Deere & Company; September 21, 1897 - Deere and Company registered "John Deere" trademark first used in 1847 (wagons); September 10, 1912 - registered logo first used in 1873 (deer leaping over log, "John Deere" arching above, "Moline, Ill." below).

January 9, 1838 - Julius Hatch, of Great Bend, PA, received patent for a "Grain Drill"; planter.

August 25, 1840 - Joseph Gibbons, of Adrian, MI, received patent for a "Grain Drill" ("new and useful improvement in the manner of constructing a machine for the planting or sowing of seeds of various kinds...the manner in which I determine and regulate the capacity of the cavities in the cylinders for the reception of the seed").

1842 - Jerome Increase Case founded the J I Case Company; gained recognition as the first builder of a steam engine for agricultural use; known in manufacturing circles as the "Threshing Machine King"; 1964 - bought by Tenneco.

1847 - Edward P. Allis began as small burr millstone maker; 1861 - acquired Milwaukee’s Reliance Works; produced steam engines, flour-milling equipment; 1863 - changed name to Edward P. Allis and Company; 1889 - employed nearly 1500 men; 1890s - Milwaukee’s largest industrial employer; built heavy machinery for factories, mines, power plants, public utilities (heating plants; pumps, pipes for Milwaukee Water Works); 1901 - merged with Fraser & Chalmers Company, Gates Ironworks, Dickson Manufacturing Company, formed Allis-Chalmers Manufacturing Company; 1985 - acquired by Klockner-Humboldt-Deutz of the Deutz Corporation of Germany.

1847 - Daniel Massey opened workshop in Newcastle ON, to build simple farm implements; 1857 - Alanson Harris established A. Harris and Son implement works at Beamsville, ON to make, repair farm machinery; 1891 - Massey, Harris merged; 1938 - produced world’s first commercially successful self-propelled combine; 1953 - Massey-Harris merged with Harry Ferguson Limited of Coventry, England; twin skills in harvesting machinery,  tractor - produced one of world’s most powerful forces in farm equipment; 1995 - acquired by AGCO Corporation.

October 21, 1852 - John Fowler of Temple Gate, Bristol, UK, received Royal Letters Patent for "Improvements in Machinery for Draining Land"; first steam cultivation of land, commercialized land drainage (had exhibited Mole Drainage Plough, horse-drawn mole-draining tackle to drain subsoil, in 1851; helped Irish peasants drain peat bogs).

May 8, 1855 - George W. Brown, of Galesburg, IL, received a patent for a "Seed Planter"; April 5, 1864 - received a patent for a "Corn-Planter"; first successful mechanical corn planter.

December 1, 1857 - Ephraim Ball, of Canton, OH, received a patent for a "Harvester" ("Improvement in Mowing-Machines"); known as "Ball's Improved Ohio Mower" (grass harvester); first widely successful of two-wheeled flexible or hinged bar mowers; influenced change from single driving-wheel machines to double drivers.

December 3, 1861 - Wilkenson Furnas, of Ononwa, IA, received a patent for a "Wheel-Cultivator" ("Improvement in Plows...designed for cultivating growing plants in bilts or drills-such as corn, potatoes, etc."); riding cultivator; first John Deere plow adapted to riding; February 16, 1864 - received a patent for a "Wheel-Cultivator" ("Improvement in Cultivators").

June 17, 1862 - W.H. Fancher and C.M. French of Waterloo, NY, received patent for a "Plow" ("Improvement in Combined Plow and Gun"); combination proposed to give those in agribusiness an "efficient weapon of defense at very slight expense in addition" to that of a plow; added elements of light ordinance, designed for "especially when used in border localities, subject to savage feuds and guerrilla warfare" to metal plow with wooden handles of ordinary construction; share served as anchor in the ground to resist recoil; wooden handles used to set direction.

January 12, 1864 - John Deere, of Moline, IL, received a patent for Improvement in Molds for Casting Steel" ("to cast in a perfect manner the shares, moldboards, landslides, and other articles of steel"); casting steel in shapes in dry-sand molds; April 5, 1864 - received patent for "Improvement in Cast-Steel Molds" ("for coating the interior surfaces of molds of dry sand to be used in casting steel into shapes").

February 16, 1864 - Jacob Behel, of Earleville, IL, received a patent for "Improvement in Grain-Binders" ("to bind gavels of grain or other materials into sheaves or bundles with cord bands, and to knot the ends of the bands together").

February 2, 1869 - James Oliver, of South Bend, IN, received a patent for "Casting Mould Boards" ("new arrangement of mould-board pattern and chill for plows"); removable tempered steel plow blade.

1872 - Thomas Chalmers founded Fraser & Chalmers Company (Chicago, IL), manufacturer of mining machinery, boilers, and pumps; 1890 - headed by William Chalmers, one of world's largest manufacturers of mining equipment.

April 7, 1874 - Edward H. Sutton, of Edenton, NC, received a patent for "Improvement in Cotton-Cultivators"; plows.

June 29, 1875 - Gilpin Moore, of Rock Island,. IL, received a patent for "Sulky-Plows" ("simple in structure, free from complicated systems of gearing, or levers being operated by a single lever, and which will possess strength, durability, and ease in operation...the wheels will be exactly balanced in their movements...the driver, in raising or lowering the plow, does not raise or support any portion of his own weight...with a given movement of the single operating-lever, a greater degree of vertical movement or travel of the wheel-centers of the axle is secured than is accomplished in ordinary plows, maintaining the plow at all times in a level of horizontal position...angle of the bottom of the sole-plate may be readily adjusted"); one of most outstanding 19th-century sulky plows; April 4, 1882 - received a patent for a "Cultivator" ("shovel-beams arranged in pairs and each pair manipulated by a single handle"); a power-lift; assigned to Deere and Company.

February 18, 1879 - John F. Appleby, of West Depere, WI, received a patent for "Improvement in Grain-Binding Harvesters"; established a class of binding machines.

March 23, 1880 - John Stevens, of Neenah, WI, received patent for a "Grain-Crushing Roll"; flour rolling mill.

July 4, 1882 - Sylvanus D. Locke, of Hoosick Falls, NY, received a patent for a "Grain-Binder" ("devices for holding the binding material and governing it in its passage as it is payed out in the operation of binding").

1883 - Charles Henry Holt, Benjamin Holt established Stockton Wheel Company in Stockton, CA (Charles had formed C.H. Holt and Co. in 1869 in San Francisco, a West Coast branch of family’s New Hampshire-based wagon-making business; William Harrison Holt, Ames Frank Holt joined Charles in 1871, formed Holt Brothers Manufacturing; produced wagon wheels made from imported, seasoned Eastern hardwood but climate too cold, damp for wheel fabrication; William and Ames Holt sold ownership to brothers); expanded into agricultural, mechanical implements; 1886 - produced 'Link Belt Combined Harvester', first combine (used flexible chain belts rather than gears to transmit power from ground wheels to working parts of machine); 1892 - incorporated as Holt Manufacturing Company; November 24, 1904 - Benjamin Holt invented first successful track-type tractor (crawler track, with tracks to disperse weight, provide better traction; used later for tanks, moving heavy artillery); made first 'caterpillar' tractor (chosen because motion of track as it traveled resembled movement of caterpillar); December 17, 1907 - received a patent for a "Traction Engine" ("improvement in vehicles, and especially of the traction engine class; and included endless traveling platform supports upon which the engine is carried"); 1910 -Stockton, CA plant manager, Clarence Leo Best, left Holt, resurrected his father's (Daniel Best) tractor company, acquired by Holt in 1908 (had acquired rights to manufacture Remington steam engine, produced range of steam-driven farm machinery, including steam tractors and combine harvesters); named reestablished company C.L. Best Gas Traction Company; February 16, 1910 - Holt Caterpillar accepted deed to bankrupt Colean Manufacturing Company plant in East Peoria (10 1/2 acres of field on which plant stood, later became Caterpillar's first proving ground, selected by Pliny Holt, nephew of Holt Manufacturing founder Benjamin Holt); 12 employees began building track-type tractors; 1913 - introduced crawler tractor patterned after Holt design; 1920 - restructured, renamed C. L. Best Tractor Company; April 15, 1925 - Chickering and Gregory (law firm) filed articles of incorporation for merger of Holt Caterpillar and C. L. Best Gas Traction Company of San Leandro, CA; name changed Caterpillar Tractor Co. (Clarence Leo Best as CEO, headquarters in East Peoria; both businesses had suffered after WW I because military flooded market with used tractors, competition from Fordson, agricultural machinery division of Ford Motor Co.); 2010 - more than 16,000 employees in Peoria area (more than 90,000 employees).

Caterpillar Tractor -  1904; first successful crawler tractor, equipped with a pair of tracks rather than wheels  (http://www.industryplayer.com/images/licrespic/tractor%204.jpg)

May 20, 1884 - Lockrum Blue, of Washington, DC, received a patent for a "Hand Corn-Shelling Device" ("for rapidly and effectually removing the grain from ears of corn").

May 11, 1886 - Black Inventor Willis Marshall, of Chicago, IL, received a patent for a "Grain-Binder" for grain harvesters; designed to remedy objections to the "construction of the tripping-dog and spring and their mode of connection".

June 1, 1886 - Black American inventor W. H. Richardson, of Baltimore, MD, received a patent for a "Cotton Chopper".

February 23, 1892 - Black American inventor, Peter D. Smith of Springfield, OH, received patent for a "Grain-Binder", way to form a binding-rope for sheaf from wisp or portion of cut grain and mechanism to be applied to reaper to perform this, knot the rope around the sheaf and eject it.

September 6, 1892 - John Froelich of Froelich, IA, built, sold first gasoline tractor in U.S. to Langford, SD (lacked easy access to a wood or coal supply for steam-powered unit); geared for both forward and reverse motion; powered by a Van Duzen vertical single-cylinder gasoline engine mounted on wooden beams upon a Robinson running gear - powered a J.I. Case threshing machine and propelled the vehicle; January 10, 1893 -  formed the Waterloo Gasoline Tractor Engine Company; 1918 - taken over by the John Deere Plow Co. (mass-produced gasoline-powered tractors based on Froelich's designs).

April 10, 1894 - George W. Murray, of Sumter, SC, received a patent for a "Combined Furrow-Opener and Stalk-Knocker" ("to open center furrows, and simultaneously therewith knock or break stalks at each side thereof, said stalks being left upon the ground for the purpose of enriching the same"); received second patent for a "Cultivator and Marker" ("improvements in cultivators and to that particular class thereof employed for opening furrows for the reception of seed").

June 5, 1894 - George W. Murray, of Rembert, SC, received six patents: for a "Planter";  for a "Cotton Chopper"; for a "Fertilizer Distributor"; for a ""Planter" ("to discharge broadcast various kinds of seed; to provide for a regulation of the discharge; and for a feed for the hopper");  for a "Combined Cotton-Seed Planter and Fertilizer Distributer"; and a patent for a "Reaper" "(machine adapted to reap small grain, to gather the same into bundles, and to automatically dump the bundles at proper intervals upon the ground, whereby said grain may be readily gathered").

August 28, 1894 - Black American inventor, Robert H. Gray, of Lexington, KY, received patent for a "Baling Press".

March 24, 1896 - Clement A. Hardy, of Dallas, TX, received patent for a "Rotary Disk Plow"; designed to be drawn into the earth by their own action and by the weight of the soil lifted by the disks and carried on their faces and have a cutting action on the bottom of the furrow instead of scraping, thereby reduced weight of the machinery.

1897 - Brosnahan & Olson Company began selling John Deere Plows in Grafton, ND; 1931 - Farup Auto Company acquired John Deere line (became largest volume John Deere dealer in nation); early 1940s - acquired by Overbye & Scidmore, local Chevrolet dealer; 1949 - acqiuired by Oliver Gorder and Paul Torgeson; experimented with first rubber tires; 1975 - acquired by Lloyd Holy,Deere & Co. Territory Manager (Minneapolis, MN); November 1, 1975 - formed Grafton Equipment Co. (8 employees); introducing row crop tractors; April 1, 2006 - John Oncken, Territory Manager for Deere & Co. for 18 years, becam shareholder and Company Vice President; 2010 - one of largest John Deere dealers in Red River Valley, over 100 employees, sales in excess of $120 million per year.

February 16, 1897 - Peter Walker, of Friar's Point, MS, received a patent for a "Machine for Cleaning Seed-Cotton" ("automatically delivering cotton containing the seed, freed from dust and various foreign matter, to the gins").

1901 - Edward P. Allis and Company merged with Fraser & Chalmers Company (Gates Iron Works of Chicago and Dickson Manufacturing Company); formed Allis-Chalmers Manufacturing Company; 1914 - built first farm tractor; became a leading manufacturer of farm equipment; 1979 - $2 billion corporation; 1985 - sold farm equipment division to K-H-Deutz AG of Germany; 1990 - acquired by AGCO Corp. (Georgia), farm equipment maker.