John Froelich

John Froelich (August 9, 1849–May 23, 1933) was an American inventor who lived in Clayton County, Iowa, and invented the first practical gasoline-powered farm tractor.

John Froelich attended school at the College of Iowa. There he learned a lot about machinery. After college, he decided he would build the very first tractor.

Designed by Mann and himself, Froelich was able to build a 16 horsepower (12 kW) tractor that could go both forward and backward by the year 1892. After completing the tractor, Froelich and Mann brought it to Langford, South Dakota, where they would connect it to a J.I. Case threshing machine, and thresh 72,000 bushels of grain in 52 days.

Purchased by Deere & Company in 1918, and became the John Deere Tractor Company. Froelich, who received little money or recognition for his invention, died from a heart attack in 1933, in St. Paul, Minnesota. He was inducted to the Iowa Inventors Hall of Fame in 1991.