Nothing Runs Like a Deere

This is a slightly modified version of a post from the Descendants of Henry Peter and Eva Catherine Simmon Facebook group, posted on November 11, 2020.

This week at my job, I’m editing a short recruitment video for a John Deere sales/parts/service outfit headquartered in northern Maine. You’re no doubt familiar with the iconic green and yellow farm equipment made by Deere & Co., which is headquartered in Moline, IL. But did you know a Simmon was a prominent early member of the Deere team?

Founded by blacksmith and inventor, John Deere (who was born in Rutland, Vermont), in the early/mid 19th century, Deere & Co. was a fast-growing presence in Moline by the time Peter Cana Simmon was born in February of 1855. (Wikipedia has the details of the early days of the company if you’re curious, but it was 1853 when John Deere bought out his early partners and struck out on his own in Moline with his son, Charles Deere.)

P. C. Simmon was the son of Phillip Simmon (the eldest of Peter and Eva Catherine’s nine children) and Phillip’s second wife, Cornelia Jane (Hitchcock) Simmon.

P. C. graduated from the Davenport (Iowa) Business College in 1873, and in 1876, at the age of 21, was hired by Deere & Co. as an invoicer and assistant bookkeeper. About a year later P. C. was promoted to be the cashier for the company and he held that job for almost 50 years.

P. C. was the company treasurer for a period (1891-1894) and was succeeded in that position by Mr. William Butterworth, who went on the be the president of Deere & Co. for many years.

There is evidence (in newspaper announcements and articles) that P. C. knew Charles Deere personally and he may have known John Deere himself, though Deere had left day-to-day business oversight to Charles in the mid 1850s.

In addition to being a long time member of the Deere team, P. C. was heavily involved in Boy Scouts leadership, Y.M.C.A. mentorship, and a local “militia” in which he held some leadership roles. He was also an “active official” at the First Methodist Church.

P. C. Simmon married Anna Dixon Richards (1861-1913) on September 10, 1883 and they had two daughters: Gertrude R. Simmon (1888-1973), and Anna May (Simmon) Eichstadt (1890-1964).

Peter Cana Simmon died suddenly from complications from a cold on May 1, 1928 at the age of 73.

Nothing runs like a Deere.