Daily AncestorRaftsman
A raftsman guided rafts of logs or lumber downriver to sawmills and markets.
Timber was cheap to move by water. Raftsmen lashed logs or sawn boards into large rafts and steered them down rivers like the Susquehanna, Delaware, Ohio and Mississippi, often walking home afterward.
The work was seasonal, tied to spring high water. Many raftsmen were farmers or lumbermen the rest of the year.
As seen in a recordOccupation column of the 1850 to 1880 census
Aaron Wood, 30, Raftsman, Penn.
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Daily Ancestor. "Raftsman." Dictionary of Old Record Words. https://dailyancestor.com/dictionary/occupations/raftsman. Last checked 2026-10-01.