Daily AncestorFarmer
In U.S. census returns a farmer is the person who ran a farm, whether as owner or tenant, as opposed to a farm laborer who worked on it for wages.
The 1860 instructions said the proprietor of a farm was to be recorded as a farmer and the men he paid as farm laborers. The rule held: in 1920 a person in charge of a farm was a farmer whether he owned it or ran it as a tenant, renter or cropper, while someone managing it for wages was a farm manager.
A woman who ran a farm herself was also to be listed as a farmer. So the word tells you who ran the place, not who owned the land.
As seen in a recordOccupation column of the 1850 to 1940 census
Jos. Brandt, 52, Farmer
Sources
How to cite this page
Daily Ancestor. "Farmer." Dictionary of Old Record Words. https://dailyancestor.com/dictionary/occupations/farmer. Last checked 2026-10-10.