Daily AncestorNightman
A nightman emptied privies and cesspools after dark and hauled away the waste, a necessary city job before sewers.
Before sewer systems, human waste collected in privy vaults and cesspools that had to be cleaned out. Towns allowed the work only at night, so the men who did it were called nightmen and the waste was politely called night soil.
In later records nightman can also simply mean a night shift worker or a night watchman, so check the industry or employer.
As seen in a recordOccupation column of the 1850 to 1880 census
Peter Haas, 45, Nightman, City
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Daily Ancestor. "Nightman." Dictionary of Old Record Words. https://dailyancestor.com/dictionary/occupations/nightman. Last checked 2026-10-01.