Daily AncestorBartender
A bartender mixed and served drinks behind a bar, usually as an employee of a saloon, hotel or restaurant.
Bartender is a word of the 1800s. The job long had a low reputation; Jerry Thomas's bartender's guide of 1862, the first guide to making cocktails, helped give it a more professional image.
The 1900 census instructions list saloon keeper or bartender among the service occupations, and warn that a bartender would often give his occupation as clerk in a wine store. Enumerators were to judge by the work actually done and call him a bartender.
As seen in a recordOccupation column of the 1880 to 1910 census
Patk. Dolahan, 31, Bartender
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Daily Ancestor. "Bartender." Dictionary of Old Record Words. https://dailyancestor.com/dictionary/occupations/bartender. Last checked 2026-10-12.