No other company has influenced the Waterloo-Cedar Falls metropolitan area in this century more than John Deere. From its humble beginnings, John Deere has grown into the world's largest producer of agricultural machinery. At the same time, Deere has also grown with the communities that have been lucky enough to secure the company as a local employer. John Deere is most famous for its fine line of tractors, which are designed and built in Waterloo. The history of the tractor can be traced back to the year 1888 when John Froehlich of Clayton County, Iowa, developed a machine designed to improve the productivity of threshing. Threshing is a process that separates the grain from the plant portion of some crops, such as oats. Froehlich built his machine by combining a J. I. Case straw burner steam tractor with a threshing machine. For the next four years, the feed mill and elevator operator led threshing teams throughout Iowa and South Dakota.

      Around 1890, Froehlich purchased a Van Duzen gasoline engine and mounted it on a Robinson Company tractor chassis. By 1892, Froehlich had perfected the machine and took it on a fifty-two day threshing demonstration tour in South Dakota. From here emerged the basic idea of combining a gasoline engine with a chassis that was big enough to do the labors of farming.

    In 1893, Froehlich, with the aid of several Waterloo investors, formed the Waterloo Gasoline Traction Engine Company. In its first year of production the Traction Engine Company produced four tractors, of which two were sold. Unfortunately, both were returned soon thereafter. This disappointing event convinced the company's leaders to switch to stationary gasoline engine manufacturing. However, this decision also proved to be a failure. The original owners of the Waterloo Gasoline Traction Engine Company decided to sell their business in l895.