Daily AncestorTanner
A tanner was a worker who turned raw animal hides into leather by soaking them in tannin baths or similar solutions.
Tanning was slow, smelly work. Hides were cleaned of hair and flesh, then soaked for weeks or months in pits of liquid made from bark, which held the tannin that turns skin into durable leather.
Tanneries needed water and bark, so they sat near streams and forests, often at the edge of town. The finished leather usually went next to a currier for dressing.
As seen in a recordOccupation column of the 1850 to 1880 census
Saml. Pratt, 38, Tanner, N.Y.
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Daily Ancestor. "Tanner." Dictionary of Old Record Words. https://dailyancestor.com/dictionary/occupations/tanner. Last checked 2026-10-01.