In the hands of Jack Martin, a fourth-generation broom maker from Tennessee, a broom is an object of art
The object itself proclaims its agricultural heritage. The bristles are made of natural broomcorn, grown within sight of the “shed” where Martin creates his brooms, while the handles are often cut from young timber nearby.
Jack Martin’s maternal great grandfather, Will Hockaday, was born around 1877 and grew up working the 200-acre family farm; raising corn, cotton, and livestock. More than 100 years ago the Hockaday family began making brooms to supplement the meager income derived from subsistence farming. The sturdy and reliable suite of broom machines Jack employs was resourcefully cobbled together by Will, with spare parts and discarded farm trappings. 
Family lore says he saw a picture of a “broom-making machine” in a mail-order catalog and, the following year, Will Hockaday was making and selling brooms. Will got the idea to grow broomcorn in the summer and make brooms in the winter when the farm work was a bit slower. From that point forward, broom making was just part of the normal winter’s work.
Jack Hockaday, Will’s son, was born in 1902. He was Jack Martin’s grandfather, and the one who taught Martin how to make brooms. Jack Hockaday started making brooms around 1915 or 1916. He could never remember the exact date, but he knew he was a young teenager.
Jack Hockaday made brooms his entire life, but again, farming was his primary occupation. Like his father he continued the tradition of farming in the summer and making brooms in the winter. Sometimes there was little money for the family, so they did the next best thing – trade. Jack would trade for food, seed for growing crops, cloth to make clothes. If you needed a broom and had something to swap, Jack would trade. Everything moved along on the farm and as time went by one of Jack’s daughters, Mildred, met and married a man named Lester Martin. From this union “Jack the Broom Maker” was born.
Jack Martin will be one of the Old Courthouse Museum’s featured artisan demonstrators at this year’s Renaissance Day on April 22nd.
On the chilly March morning we visited Mr. Jack he was making a fire in the wood burning stove in “the broom shed.” We found that, not only is he an award-winning artist, he’s also very good at engaging fidgety little five-year-old boys by making the process of broom making attention-grabbing. He told us that every broom that comes out of “the broom shed” is guaranteed to last. “You will wear it to a nub before a bristle falls out”, or Martin will replace it. Since 1916, Hockaday Handmade Brooms has had to make good on that promise less than 10 times, and Martin swears that several of those brooms were damaged by hogs. “We make a good broom at a fair price,” he says with a sardonic grin, “but they’re not hog-proof.”
Martin’s brooms have been procured by private collectors and prestigious cultural institutions, including the Smithsonian. They have been used as props in television shows and Broadway plays. In 2015, Martin was honored with the Tennessee Governor’s Folklife Heritage Award, the state’s highest honor in the arts. It was there he met and became friends with Loretta Lynn. It’s a step or two up from the hog pen.
Jack’s “flattered, of course, but a broom is still made for sweeping. Every step of the process, from selecting and planting the seeds, to harvesting and combing the broomcorn, to wiring it onto the handle and sewing it into the familiar fan shape, is lovingly done by hand, with function in mind.” After all that, it seems a real shame to hang it on the wall.
We would like to extend a thank-you to our wonderful friends at Tri State Educational Foundation for sponsoring Mr. Jack’s visit to Renaissance Day 2023.