Daily AncestorCheckweighman
A checkweighman was a man chosen by coal miners to check the company's weighing of the coal they dug, on which their pay depended.
Miners were often paid by the weight of coal they sent up, and weighers appointed by the owners were often accused of cheating. From the mid-1800s miners and their unions pushed to make the checkweighman an elected post; in parts of the United States the struggle over that right lasted into the 1900s.
Because he was trusted by the men, a checkweighman often went on to become a union leader or politician.
As seen in a recordOccupation and industry columns of the 1910 to 1940 census
Evan Prothero, 46, Checkweighman, Coal mine
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Daily Ancestor. "Checkweighman." Dictionary of Old Record Words. https://dailyancestor.com/dictionary/occupations/checkweighman. Last checked 2026-10-12.