Jack Martin of Hockaday Handmade Brooms

Jack Martin

Jack MartinJack Martin is a fourth generation broom maker in Selmer, TN. His great grandfather, Will Hockaday, started making brooms in 1916 on the same machine that Jack uses today to handmake each and every broom or additional works by Martin.

Jack organizes an annual Broom Corn Festival in September attended by thousands who come to watch several demonstrating craftsman and artists from around the area. It sounds like a lot of fun.

I met Jack last Christmas Eve when I was searching for a last minute gift that would communicate something more than that. Jack stayed open, and I made a 7 hour round trip to pick up brooms. I was blown away by his shop, his story and his amazing brooms.

I brought my mom out there in March, and Jack was so awesome. He made a broom start to finish explaining every step like he had done it hundreds of times before. It truly is a craft of love you have to witness.

Here is more on Jack and his broom making roots:

Jack Hockaday was born in 1902 (he is Jack Martin’s Grandfather, the one who taught him to be “The Broom Maker”). Jack Hockaday started making brooms around 1915-1916, he couldn’t remember the exact date but he knew he was a young teenager. Jack Hockaday made brooms his whole life, but again farming was his main occupation. Even as a young man starting his own family, (two girls and one boy); he worked the farm in the summer, and made 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, cloth to make clothes to wear. If you needed a broom and had something to swap, then Jack would trade. Everything moved along on the farm and as time went by one of Jack’s daughters (Mildred Hockaday) met and married a man named Lester Martin. From this union, “Jack the Broom Maker” was born.

Jack Martin was born in 1953 in Selmer, Tennessee. Growing up on the farm Jack knew from the age of 6 that he wanted to be a farmer. Jack loved every single thing about the outdoors. He would ride with his Grandfather on the tractor all day, just so he could play in the dirt. Jack used to watch his Grandfather making brooms and was amazed at how he would put them together, but he never thought about being a broom maker.

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