Daily AncestorCaterer
A caterer provided and served food and drink for weddings, funerals, parties and other gatherings held away from a restaurant.
Catering as an American business began to form around 1820, centered in Philadelphia, and early caterers there were disproportionately African American. Robert Bogle is recognized as the originator of catering; caterers of the 1860s worked as public butlers for several households, handling weddings and funerals.
An older sense in Wiktionary is a person employed to obtain and store provisions, especially food.
As seen in a recordOccupation column of the 1850 to 1900 census
Jas. Fortenay, 47, Caterer, Pa.
How to cite this page
Daily Ancestor. "Caterer." Dictionary of Old Record Words. https://dailyancestor.com/dictionary/occupations/caterer. Last checked 2026-10-12.