Remembering broom corn and broom factories

On December 24, 1920, the young fireman and future Fire Chief Richard Norris, who had recently returned from overseas having served in WWI, was nearly permanently injured trying to extinguish the last broom factory fire recorded in Plattsburgh’s history. A broom factory had existed in Plattsburgh from the 1840s, beginning on Oak Street, between Broad and Brinkerhoff Streets, on Bridge Street, on Caroline Street and finally to Peru Street. Brooms were just another necessary commodity that area entrepreneurs would provide.

Broom corn was needed to make a broom. Broom corn was not a corn but a variety of sorghum used primarily to make brooms. The seed is said to have come over on slave ships from Africa. Ben Franklin is often given credit for introducing broom corn but recent research says no.

In the 1820s, Clinton County farmers produced broom corn. In 1821, Robert Platt of Peru, Nathaniel Nichols of Champlain and Benona Ladd of Chazy were recognized by the Clinton County Cattle Shows and Fairs for their broom corn harvest. Levi Marshall from Beekmantown had the best broom corn acreage. To win this award, one only had to produce 10 rods of a high-quality product. Awards for other crops were for .5 or 1 full acre. In 1845, New York State Agricultural Society was still offering recognition for the best broom corn acreage but crops appear to have been more substantial in southern and midwestern states.

Interest in raising broom corn appeared again in 1916. In March, the County Fair management, through the Clinton County Agricultural Society’s office of their President E. F. Botsford, offered free broom corn seeds to those interested in growing what was suggested to be not only a lucrative crop, but a crop with a local market. The local market, the Plattsburgh Broom Company, offered 1st and 2nd prizes at the fair for the top bundles. Farmers were told that the US Department of Agriculture published a booklet on how to grow broom corn and seeds were going to be made available to 150 farmers. In April, an article in the Plattsburgh Sentinel again promoted the planting of broom corn with the Clinton County Agricultural Society distributing seeds to anyone interested. In the fall, at the fair, only the Valley Grange of Ellenburg offered a showing of broom corn. There was no printed record of any prize winners.

The traditional broom was constructed from a bundle of twigs tied to a stout pole but later on, at the factory for example, making a broom was an identifiable skill. Henry Rozier, a black Canadian prisoner in Dannemora, was identified as a broom maker, the only prisoner broom maker in the 1880 census. The 1920 census pointed out that Plattsburgh had many skilled broom makers with 15 families connected to the broom manufacturing industry. Some worked on the handles and some on the machines. Nineteen-year-old Harvey Bullis was a corn sorter. Frank and Louis Fifield were identified as owners of a broom factory in 1920, but this is difficult to confirm elsewhere. Frank Fifield was involved in a tragic accident at the Caroline Street broom factory in August of 1920 when an elevator he was taking down from the third floor badly crushed a man who mistakenly was retrieving broom corn seed for his chickens from the elevator shaft. Alvin Martin died from his injuries in December and is buried in Riverside Cemetery.

Several broom factories have been identified in Plattsburgh. The Plattsburgh Broom Company of the 1840s on Oak Street burned in 1915 and moved then to Caroline Street. When they reopened they boasted having improved machinery, making a higher level of broom and employing from 30 to 50 people. Francis Sargent had a broom factory on Bridge Street in  November of 1867. He purchased his broom corn from the south and called his establishment a Broom Manufactory. In 1868, his factory offered ‘worked up’ broom corn for sale. In May of 1868, Mr. P. Girard advertised that he had formerly worked with Francis Sargent, and that he and L. Chauvin had opened a broom and brush factory in Walkers & Co Planing Mill, also on Bridge Street, called the ‘Union Broom Factory’. Mr. Girard appears to have had access to local supplies of broom corn which could be made up quickly into brooms and at a reasonable cost. The last Plattsburgh Broom Factory on Peru Street, which burned in December of 1920, was owned by the Stower Brothers.

There was certainly a market for brooms in Plattsburgh. In November 1827, Edwards & Campbell sold corn brooms, ‘large and small’, along with a myriad of other products such as fabrics, artist supplies and groceries. In 1849, Nichols & Lynde advertised a stock of 50 dozen brooms and a stock of 100 dozen in 1854. And like any market, prices depended on availability.  It was reported in 1875 that the price of broom corn fluctuated more than any other crop and in 1910 the cost of broom corn was making brooms very expensive. In May 1920, there was an article in the Plattsburgh Daily Republican about how ‘club’ girls could make money making brooms from the broom corn which grew so well in the southern states. This program under the supervision of the United States Department of Agriculture, suggested that communities would buy machines for the girls to use. After the girls paid for the use of the machines, their profit from their work could be used to pay for college or normal school.

Broom factory fires seemed to be as common as starch factory fires. Elizabethtown lost their broom factory in 1879. The Plattsburgh factory first burned in 1915 and burned again in 1920.  Local investors encouraged them to continue but the December 1920 fire ended our last broom factory.

In 1933, broom corn was promoted as a decorative plan with a tropical air, or in a broom, sturdy with a lacquered handle on sale for $1. It was still grown elsewhere and a new high price for a ton was set in California. Our local newspapers stopped referencing broom corn brooms in the early 1990s.

-Written by Helen Nerska, Director, Clinton County Historical Association