Daily AncestorHerder
A herder or herdsman tended grazing livestock such as cattle, sheep or goats, often on open range or common pasture, for the stock's owner.
Herding means gathering animals into a group, keeping the group together and moving it from place to place. The herder was the worker in charge, on foot or mounted, and the work was often done on open pasture or common land. Names change with the animal: cowboy for cows, shepherd for sheep, goatherd for goats.
In 1900 enumerators were told to return a stock herder or stock drover separately from a stock raiser, the owner of the stock.
As seen in a recordOccupation column of the 1870 to 1940 census
Juan Baca, 24, Sheep herder
How to cite this page
Daily Ancestor. "Herder." Dictionary of Old Record Words. https://dailyancestor.com/dictionary/occupations/herder. Last checked 2026-10-10.