1870 Census Trivia & Genealogy Goodies
Weakley County, Tennessee


 
Professions of the Day and More
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The majority of people in Weakley County had the Profession/Trade of Keeps House for Women, Farmer for men, and Domestic Servant for both sexes. Many men listed as Farmers also had other jobs and professions...but counted as farmers first.

District 7, the largest populated District and the heart of the County had the following:

7 Blacksmiths
2 Boot Shoe Maker
17 Carpenter
1 Carriage Maker
1 Chair Maker
6 Clerks in Store
1 Cooper
1 County Surveyor
1 Court Clerk
11 Day Laborer
3 Dentist
1 sheriff
1 District Constable
312 Domestic Servant
2 Druggist
87 Farm Laborer
209 Farmers
10 Grocers
1 Harness Maker
1 Gun smith
1 Hotel Keeper
4 House Keeper
1 Judge Chancery Court
413 Keeps House
9 Lawyers
1 Mail Agent
1 Mail Rider
2 Millers
1 Milliner
3 Painters
1 Patient
4 Pauper
10 Physician
1 Post Master
1 Printer
1 Railroad Agent
13 Retail Merchant
1 Sadler
2 Salon Keeper
4 School Teacher
1 Student of Medicine
2 Tanner
3 Taylor
1 Tin Smith
1 Tobacco Manufacturer
1 Tobacoist
1 Town Marshal
4 Waiters
1 Watch Maker
2 Wheelwright

Professions found in other Districts:
Commercial Broker
Domestic Hand
Brick Mason
Dry Goods Clerk
"Enginer"
Railroad Empoyee
Well Digger
Works Grist Mill

and More.......

Twins.....When I saw two children listed together with the same age I put Twin in the Profession/Trade column with ? They look like twins but the age may have been entered incorrect or they were related but not siblings.  Babies with the same age and month of birth surely were twins.

States....TN, VA, SC, NC, and KY are abreviated. The rest are mostly written out because there were very few of them.

Keeps House...Some of the enumerators wrote "Keeps House"and others wrote "Keeping house", I used Keeps House on all pages --that is of course, except for a few errors like "eeps House".  Out of respect for the many hundreds of women doing all that work day after day, I wrote out Keeps House rather than abreviating with KH.  Ususally it was the wife who kept house but on occasion it was a daughter.

House Keeper..she kept house for someone as an employee.
At Home ...Some of the enumerators filled in the Profession/Trade column with "At Home" in those spaces that did not actually list a trade or profession. Others left them blank. I left them blank except on rare occasion to let you know no profession was listed.


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Web version of 1870 Census by MaryCarol © 2002

1870 Census used with permission from - 1870 U.S. Census and More WeakleyCounty, Tennessee
by MaryCarol Schrupp © 2001