^33. n^i ■ ^^. 



^ftNf2 of the most common things in all our life 

 yj is the unpretentious broom, common in our 

 lives as it was in the lives of our remote an- 

 cestors as well as the so-called savage tribes of the 

 present day and in ancient times. Its shape, the 

 material of which it is made and its use have 

 changed through the centui-ies more than almost 

 any other common article in our household. Yet in 

 the eyes of the general public, how many know the 

 material and manufacture of the article? 



Because here in central Illinois you are near the 

 location of the main source of broomcorn — Areola 

 being known as the broomcorn capital of America — 

 it is appropriate we give a thought to broomcorn 

 and brooms, both from a historical angle and the 

 more practical manufacturing standpoint. 



The forerunners of the present day broom were 

 crude devices. One type used by eai'ly savage tribes 

 was an article made by the tying of twigs or fibers 

 to the end of a stick. Another was fashioned by a 

 clever way of splitting a hickory stick about four 

 feet long from the end to within a few inches of 

 the other end and then wetting and bending these 

 small splinters down and tying them in the form of 

 a bundle. It was round in shape and varied in size 

 as did the shape of its handle. For untold centui'ies 



such was the tool for removing trash. A finer 

 brush than twigs, but made of different materials, 

 was used in Europe and Asia. Only slight men- 

 tion was ever made pi'ior to 1790 to a form of su- 

 gar cane, with a longer head, whose native home 

 was India. 



The honor of introducing broomcorn to Amer- 

 ica goes to Benjamin Franklin — one of the great 

 heroes of our history. The many things he did for 

 America and his genius both in philosophy and in- 

 vention have, to my way of thinking, not been sur- 

 passed by any other American leader. 



Near 1790 or shortly thereafter a friend of 

 Franklin's traveling in Europe and Asia sent him 

 a little brush the size of your hand which he found 

 in his travels. Franklin used this to clean the dust 

 from bis travel-stained hat. To one of the straws 

 of this brush clung a seed which Franklin's curi- 

 osity caused him to plant the following spring. A 

 garden novelty resulted and for a few years this 

 p'ant was an ornament to different Philadelphia 

 gardens. Then about 1795 Levi Dickinson, an old 

 bachelor living at North Hadley, Mass., got a hand- 

 ful of the seed and took it home to plant and that 

 fall had enough straw to make thirty brooms. Be- 

 cause they were so much better than the old round 



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