Holyoke Broom Works (A Clean Sweep - Part 1)

The backgound story of the inventon of the broom caught my interest, and I learned that Holyoke played a role in this industry.

Benjamin Franklin introduced the broom to America, and the first commercially made brooms were manufactured in North Hadley, Massachusetts. 

First, here's some background about broom manufacturing. It was around 1797 that Levi Dickinson obtained some broom seed in his North Hadley, Massachusetts field. He increased the crop each of the following two years until there was an acre of broom corn grown. In the first year of planting, he produced about 20 to 30 brooms; the following year, 200. By the end of the century, he was traveling to Pittsfield, Massachusetts, and south to New London. 

In 1840, Caleb D. Dickinson obtained a mill privilege on the Mill River and built and operated a commercial broom factory. His son-in-law, John C. Howe, took over the plant in 1870. John Howe was a descendant of Elias Howe of Spencer, who invented the sewing machine.

In 1850, the business of Charles Cook & Sons started up and survived all the other broom manufacturers in the area. Homer F. Cook was the owner of the company.

Stewart H Young worked for the Cook business. It was around 1900 that he left the compamy to form the Holyoke Broom Works at 136 Maple Street. In 1904, Charles E. Pope obtained a patent for the company for his broom holder. The company produced brooms and brushes and hired a salesman to sell its brooms.

In 1909, Mr. Young received a solicitation to moveto Fitchburg, Massachusetts. The company was producing 150 brooms each day, however wanted to move to an area where there would be a market for 500 produced daily.

In 1910, the Henry E. Allen concern, located at Dwight and Nonotuck Streets touted the broom as produced with the finest brown corn, skillfully crafted, where neither the handle would loosen nor the broom corn fall out.

In 1911, the company relocated to Winter Street in the area of Eureka Ruling & Binding. The company had been seeking a factory site with 3,000 square-feet of space.

In 1913, Stewart Young entered into a partnership with Joseph W. Smith, but that was dissolved about one year later. Sylvester Snow became a partner with Joseph Smith in the reorganized business.

In 1915, Stewart Young was again operating the growing business at 106-110 Front Street in Holyoke. His son, Edison Young was working in the business in 1918.

In 1928, the Holyoke Broom Works acquired Hadley's Charles Cook & Sons business which was one of the oldest commercial broom manufacturers in the country.

The comapany incorporated as the Holyoke Broom Company in 1931. The incorporators were Stewart H. Young, Edison R. Young and Rachel R. Young, all of Springfield, Massachusetts.

The following year, Stewart H. Young, who was the corporate Treasurer, died. In 1932, Edison Young announced the plant was moving to the Dwight Manufacturing complex in Chicopee, Massachusetts.

Citations: 

The Daily Hampshire Gazette, Northampton, Massachusetts, "Broom Corn was raised in Hadley", May 8, 1929.

Newspapers.com (paid subscription): Citations: Holyoke (Massachusetts) Transcript & Transcript-Telegram; Springfield (Massachusetts) Republican, Union, Morning Union, and Evening Union; publication dates and pages are shown.