Be kind to your son-in-law. He just might make you a millionaire!
The year was 1857. Business was booming for John Deere. His steel plow as a huge success, with his factory churning out more than 1,200 plows a month. From humble beginnings, Deere had risen to be a titan of industry.
He hadn’t planned for what happened next. An unprecedented worldwide financial crisis, known as the Panic of 1857, caused commercial credit to dry up. Pioneers were suddenly unable to get credit to purchase farms (and new John Deere plows). The question of slavery was quickly bubbling to the surface in the federal government, creating even more financial instability as the country headed for war. This was the first worldwide financial crisis the United States had ever been involved in – and it threatened to tear the John Deere company apart.
With a sudden decline in revenues, John Deere was once again facing bankruptcy. Perhaps he thought back to his early years as a blacksmith, and humiliation of selling his bankrupt shop to his father-in-law and leaving his pregnant wife and children behind to seek work out west. How could he, after rising so far, be faced with bankruptcy again?
The solution was to re-organize the business. By passing the reigns of leadership to someone else, Deere could save the company – and still maintain his role in inventing and marketing new products. But who could he sell to? Who would he trust? Who had the skills necessary?
Deere’s only living son, Charles Deere, was just 21 years old. Charles had received some formal education in accounting, but he was never a good student – his older brother, Francis, had always planned on taking over that aspect of the company. Francis died at age 18, however, leaving Charles as the only son. Charles couldn’t lead the company alone, though. So he turned to his brother-in-law, Christopher Webber, for help.
Not much is known about Christopher Webber. He was described as a shrewd businessman – someone who would be quick to demand payment owed and who was eager to protect his company’s own cash flow. While this is far from the sort of generous spirit you might want around your holiday table, it’s exactly the sort of thing you need in the board room during a financial crisis. John Deere sold his interest in the company to Webber.
On paper, Charles Deere and Christopher Webber were now the leaders of Deere and Co.
Five years later, they were joined by a new member of the family – Stephen Velie, who married John’s daughter Emma. Together, these men shepherded the family business through the financial crisis and the Civil War.
Years later, when the Civil War was over and the economy had stabilized, the sons-in-law Webber and Velie shifted out of leadership – leaving Charles as the president of the company.
Charles continued the family tradition of trusting the son-in-law. When he stepped down as president of the company in 1907, he handed the reigns to his daughter’s husband, William Butterworth. Butterworth lead the company admirably. Not only did he add tractors to the product line, he also made Deere one of the first employers in the nation to offer a pension system to its employees.
William passed the company on to his nephew, the aptly named Charles Deere Wilman. After his death, his son-in-law once again came to the rescue. William Hewitt, who had married Charles Wilman’s daughter, was the last member of the Deere family to lead the company.
Four son-in-laws later, the John Deere corporation was a multinational, Fortune 500 powerhouse.
I’d say those men certainly earned their membership in the Deere family!
Dennis Erickson says
Interesting!