John Deere came to Grand Detour in 1836. In 1837, he fashioned a steel plow out of a broken sawmill blade in his blacksmith shop situated in the nearby John Deere Historic Site.

In 1843, John Deere and Leonard Andrus formed a partnership to "become co-partners together in the art...of blacksmithing, ploughmaking and all things thereto belonging..." In1846, a two-story plow factory was constructed on this site. That year they had ten employees and manufactured 400 plows. The partnership was dissolved in 1848 and John Deere went on to found a new company bearing his name in Moline, Illinois.

Leonard Andrus and partners continued to operate the Grand Detour Plow Factory. It burned down in 1857. It was rebuilt in 90 days. Sixty employees produced 50-60 plows per day until the company moved to nearby Dixon, Illinois, in 1869 to be near the railroad. The abandoned factory burned down in 1890. This wall is the last remnant of this factory and thus part of the early manufacturing heritage of Grand Detour.

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Erected to the memory of Leonard Andrus founder of the village of Grand Detour Illinois 1835
Grand Detour, Illinois
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Abraham Lincoln
Lincoln Supports Fremont for President
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First Christian Church

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