Daily AncestorPinsetter
A pinsetter, or pin boy, was a boy or young man hired at a bowling alley to set the fallen pins back up and return the balls by hand.
Before machines, every bowling alley needed people behind the pins to clear them, set them back in place and send the balls back to the players. The work went to boys and young men, known as pin boys or pinsetters.
The first mechanical pinsetter was patented and sold to AMF in 1941, and machines gradually took over the job, so pin boys appear mostly in the 1910 to 1940 censuses, usually listed with bowling alley as the industry.
As seen in a recordOccupation and industry columns of the 1920 to 1940 census
Leo Kowalski, 16, Pin boy, Bowling alley
How to cite this page
Daily Ancestor. "Pinsetter." Dictionary of Old Record Words. https://dailyancestor.com/dictionary/occupations/pinsetter. Last checked 2026-10-10.