Daily AncestorSawyer
A sawyer was a worker who sawed logs into boards and timber, at first by hand in a saw pit and later at a sawmill.
Before sawmills were everywhere, two sawyers cut logs lengthwise with a long pit saw, one standing on top of the log and one below it in a pit. Later the word meant a man who ran the saw at a sawmill.
In river country, sawyer also meant a sunken tree that bobbed in the current and snagged boats, but in the occupation column it means the woodworking job.
As seen in a recordOccupation column of the 1880 to 1920 census
Levi Grant, 28, Sawyer, Mich.
How to cite this page
Daily Ancestor. "Sawyer." Dictionary of Old Record Words. https://dailyancestor.com/dictionary/occupations/sawyer. Last checked 2026-10-01.