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Name the most indelible icons that have defined and connected the Quad-Cities and its residents over time, and more than likely your list will include corn, John Deere and the Mississippi River.

The three are like threads woven into the rich fabric that is the Quad-Cities. Their relationship to jobs might be immediate, like corn's connection to a grain dealer, or distant, like the golden crop's link to the waitress who serves your morning coffee.

See how these three iconic threads create jobs by reading the stories in Q-C Connected, the 2011 progress reports published today, Feb. 13 and Feb. 20 in The Dispatch and The Rock Island Argus.

Today's report features stories about Quad-Citians whose jobs are connected to corn. Week 2 of Q-C Connected will report on jobs related to John Deere (the man and the company). Week 3 will conclude the series with stories about jobs connected to the Mississippi River.

As for corn, it's true that fewer individuals are farming as a result of the consolidation and corporatization of family farms. However, many Quad-Citians still make their living as a result of corn -- a plant first cultivated by American Indians and grown in such communities as Saukenuk, the Sauk village that was located on the banks of the Rock River in present-day Rock Island.

By the 19th century, corn "was closely tied to the development of the Midwest," according to the paper "Origin, History, and Uses of Corn" by agronomists Lance Gibson and Garren Benson of Iowa State University. Since then, the corn industry has continued to affect and create employment for countless people.

Today's stories include jobs directly related to corn, such as farmers, crop dusters and grain handlers, as well as jobs indirectly related to the commodity, mechanics, a cafe owner and distillery operator among them.

Look inside for these and other great stories and photographs.

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Today is Tuesday, May 21, the 141st day of 2013. There are 224 days left in the year.
1863 -- 150 years ago: On Monday the 11th inst. on Center Ridge in Mercer County,some citizens got out their cannon to celebrate the taking of Richmond. The gun wasoverloaded and burst. No one was injured, but one 30-pound piece went though thesecond story of a house.
1888 -- 125 years ago: The old folks concert at the Harper Theater last night to benefit St.Luke's Cottage Hospital, attracted a large audience.
1913 -- 100 years ago: Unless depredation by vandals in Rock Island parks is halted,special policemen will be assigned to night duty to protect the flowers and other property.
1938 -- 75 years ago: Station WHBF has received a special citation from Washington forits participation in Air Mail Week, which was observed this week throughout the nation.
1963 -- 50 years ago: A 10-year high in employment in the Quad-City area was reachedat the end of the last quarter, according to an industrial employment barometer releasedtoday.
1988 -- 25 years ago: Pee Wee teams will be able to play baseball and softball as usualon Diamond Three at Dorrance Park this summer, but after that, the ball field is doomed.County crews have put the diamond back in shape after heavy trucks marred the playingfield earlier this spring. Illinois Department of Transportation crews drove onto it to makeborings for the relocation of the junction of Illinois 84 and the Port Byron-Hillsdale road.

(More History)