Daily AncestorProprietor
A proprietor was the owner of a business, such as a hotel, store, mill or saloon; in census entries it marks the owner rather than an employee.
Proprietor simply means owner, usually of an unincorporated business run by one person or a few partners. In colonial history the word also meant the persons to whom a whole colony was granted, with the right to govern it.
Census instructions used it carefully. The 1910 rules call the proprietor of a hotel or boarding house who hires servants an employer, and the 1940 rules say a proprietor's entry should name the craft, as in proprietor, pharmacist.
As seen in a recordOccupation and industry columns of the 1910 to 1940 census
Frank Russo, 44, Proprietor, Restaurant
Sources
How to cite this page
Daily Ancestor. "Proprietor." Dictionary of Old Record Words. https://dailyancestor.com/dictionary/occupations/proprietor. Last checked 2026-10-10.