Daily AncestorAsst.
Asst. means assistant, as in Asst. Supt. or Asst. Surg.; it was an approved abbreviation in the 1900 census occupation column.
Asst. for assistant is one of the twenty short forms the 1900 census instructions allowed in the occupation column, so you may meet lines such as Asst. Cashier, bank or Asst. Supt., mill on that census.
The same short form turns up in city directories and in Civil War rosters, where Asst. Surg. means an assistant surgeon of the regiment. Read the word after it to learn whose helper the person was.
As seen in a recordOccupation column of the 1900 census
Asst. Cashier, Bank
Sources
How to cite this page
Daily Ancestor. "Asst.." Dictionary of Old Record Words. https://dailyancestor.com/dictionary/abbreviations/asst. Last checked 2026-10-12.