Daily AncestorBaggageman
A baggageman was a railroad employee in charge of the baggage car, storing and handing out passengers' checked bags and sometimes handling mail.
Passenger trains carried a baggage car, in North America usually coupled near the front behind the locomotive. It held checked baggage, express parcels and, in earlier times, mail, and passengers were not normally allowed in it while the train moved.
The 1900 census told enumerators to report a steam railroad employee by the nature of his work, naming baggageman beside brakeman, conductor, locomotive engineer and switchman.
As seen in a recordOccupation column of the 1880 to 1940 census
Wm. Kerr, 33, Baggageman, R.R.
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Daily Ancestor. "Baggageman." Dictionary of Old Record Words. https://dailyancestor.com/dictionary/occupations/baggageman. Last checked 2026-10-10.