| Show INVENTOR OF CORN BROOM levi lev dickinson native of connecticut la Is the man to be accorded the honor although it la is not generally known said a manufacturer of brooms the tha house broom such as the housewife uses is comparatively a recent invention dating back to 1786 before that time husk brooms were used to sweep out the ovens and splinter brooms made of birch were used for everyday use the present broom industry might be said ald to have had its beginning in connecticut in 1786 when levi dickinson a native of Weather iteld went to hadley carrying with him a now new kind ot of corn seed e d which he showed his friends saying 17 g that when full grown it would make better brooms than ever had been made the hadley women laughed at him but despite this dickinson was wa not discouraged but harvested harn his first crop of broom corn cor n managed to scrape the toed seed from the brush with a knife and a hoe boo after which he be made his brooms ho he made the complete broom including the handles handle and grew his own flax for the twine the whole costing him little believing that his neighbors would refuse to buy the now new kind of broom dickinson in 1798 1799 peddled his brooms in williamsburg Ashil ashfield eld and conway the next year he carried them to pittsburg the now new brooms took tor for as a soon as housewives found how much better they were over the old husk or birch broom they would buy no other other men went into the business and a new industry was born in hadley dickinson lived until 1843 long enough to see the hadley or corn broom in use all over the country and the same broom with improvements Is in still in use |
