Daily AncestorLock tender
A lock tender operated a lock on a canal or river, opening and closing gates and valves to raise or lower boats between water levels.
A canal lock is a chamber with gates at each end. The lock tender let a boat in, closed the gates and filled or drained the chamber until the boat matched the next level of water, then opened the far gates.
Lock tenders usually lived in a house beside the lock and had to answer boats at all hours in the shipping season, so the whole family often helped.
As seen in a recordOccupation column of the 1850 to 1880 census
Abram Fisher, 46, Lock tender, Erie Canal
How to cite this page
Daily Ancestor. "Lock tender." Dictionary of Old Record Words. https://dailyancestor.com/dictionary/occupations/locktender. Last checked 2026-10-01.