Looking back at my lineage, the overwhelming family business was farming. But I want to focus on a particular side business practiced by my great-grandfather David Cassatt: broom making.
David was a farmer and a Civil War veteran. He was born in Ohio, but after the war he settled in Barton County, Missouri. His broom-making sideline came to light when I saw a family photograph, taken in the late 1880s or early 1890s. In it, alongside David, his wife Susan, their children, and a few rabbits, is an array of brooms and what appears to be broom-making equipment.
Judging from the ages of the children—Orville (born 1875), Virgil (my grandfather, born 1878), and Bascom (born 1883)—the photo was likely taken around 1888. It’s possible this photo was taken during a solemn family moment: the death and funeral of their daughter and sister Laura, who died in 1888. If that’s the case, this image captures both grief and the everyday resilience of work and family life.
Unfortunately, the 1890 U.S. Census, where further clues might have appeared, was mostly destroyed by fire, including the detailed agricultural schedules. But not all is lost. The 1880 U.S. Census Agricultural Schedule shows that David Cassatt lived in Barton City Township, Barton County, Missouri. In 1879, he and Susan had sold their farm in Carroll County and evidently relocated to Barton County. At the time of the census, he was renting a 110-acre farm. Among the crops and livestock listed, I found 1/4 acre planted in sorghum, which yielded 40 gallons of molasses.
That detail caught my attention because brooms are traditionally made from a type of sorghum. But there’s a distinction: the kind used for molasses is sweet sorghum (Sorghum bicolor), while broomcorn is a different variety (Sorghum vulgare var. technicum). The census even had a separate column for broom corn, but in the 1880 returns for David, those entries are blank.
It’s plausible that David was testing the waters in a new area, renting before purchasing land and experimenting with local crops. At some point in the 1880s, he seems to have either acquired broom-making equipment, perhaps from a previous local broom maker, or purchased new tools outright. The family photo reveals one broom in the process of being constructed, held horizontally in a device I later identified through Google Images as a kick-winder. In this apparatus, the broomstick is secured in a vise while a foot pedal is used to spin it. Wire is then wound around the straw to bind it firmly to the stick. Afterward, the broom is transferred to a flat vise, where the straw is woven into a flat shape and trimmed.
Interestingly, the brooms in the photo are the more modern flat type, rather than the old-fashioned round brooms where straw was simply wrapped around a stick. Flat brooms require more specialized equipment, and their design is sometimes credited to the Shakers. There’s a bit of family lore here too: one of David’s ancestral lines, the Banta family, were founding members of the Pleasant Hill Shaker community in central Kentucky. So perhaps there’s a deeper connection between this invention and our family’s past.
In the photo, several brooms are clearly mid-construction, and there appear to be around ten completed brooms. Besides selling crops, the family could make extra income by selling brooms to other farmers and townspeople—a classic example of a rural side business.
David, who managed to recover from his wartime experiences and resulting ailments, built a reputation as a successful farmer. In time, he was able to provide farms to each of his three surviving sons. His resourcefulness, and his willingness to explore opportunities beyond farming, clearly served him well.
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