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Archiver > MAHAMPSH > 2001-04 > 0987390847


From: "Sue Downhill" <>
Subject: Re: [MAHAMPSH-L] Massachusetts location ???
Date: Sun, 15 Apr 2001 20:14:07 -0700


Norma Wasmer <> Wrote ~

>My gg grandfather and twin brother worked in a broom factory, but no one
seems to be aware of any broom factories in the Lowell area. <snip>Now I
have found some old documents that name the location as Lowell, and
Northampton and Hadley. <

found a reference to broom factories ~
"Historic Hampshire in the Connecticut Valley"
by Clifton Johnson, Milton Bradley Co.,
Springfield, MA Publishers, 1932

Chapter III Hadley,
(pg. 113 -) The town contains a larger area of good workable land than any
other in the Connecticut Valley, and for a long time it found prosperity in
cattle-raising. At the upper end of Middle Street dwelt Levi DICKINSON,
who, in 1797, chanced to get hold of a little broom corn seed. Broom corn
is a native of India, but it had long been raised in southern Europe for its
seed; and in Italy some of the brush had been made into brooms. DICKINSON
planted a few hills in his garden; and the next year he raised half an acre
and made the first (pg.. 114) brooms from broom corn ever produced in
America. He was ridiculed, but he kept on raising more and improving the
processes of manufacture. Strangers who were passing, after it had put
forth its panicles, often stopped to inquire what it was. He began peddling
his brooms in a horse-drawn cart, and presently was selling them in Boston
and Albany. His neighbors had laughed at him as visionary, but he so
plainly was prospering that eventually the whole town was raising broom corn
and making brooms and brushes. About 800,000 were manufactured in 1850 at
41 shops and in numerous homes. However, Western competition gradually
eliminated the profit, and in 1930 the last of the Hadley broom factories
ceased to operate.

Found no reference to broom manufacture in Northampton chapter. Hope this
helps, maybe a DICKINSON researcher knows more of the details.
Sue

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