Everybody knows lawyers, businessmen, and generals become presidents. But what sort of blue-collar, working-class cred have our commanders in chief brought to the Oval Office? The U.S. Federal Census offers come clues—at least after 1850.
The 1850 census was the first to list occupation. That year, Pierce, Lincoln, and Hayes are all practicing law. Zachary Taylor lists his occupation as President of the United States, and Millard Fillmore is working as Vice-Pres—though he’s apparently living in Buffalo, NY (those miserable D.C. summers?). Ulysses S. Grant’s entry simply says “Army,” while Andrew Johnson is honing his political chops as a “congressman.”
James Buchanan is the standout—he lists his occupation as a “Farmer,” though he was a well-known lawyer with long years in public service.
Chester Arthur is a “student” in 1850, but by the 1860 census, he’s a lawyer, along with Lincoln and Harrison. Pierce has moved on to the occupation of “Gentleman” (good work if you can get it), while Fillmore appears to be trying to maintain a foothold on the celebrity circuit as “Ex President US.” Johnson has moved on to the Senate. Grant now says he’s a “leather merchant.”
The next few decades provide no leather merchants or farmers. According to the census, all of our upcoming presidents seem to be at home, at school, or practicing law in the latter part of the 19th century. Of course, 1890 is missing, and in 1900, president-to-be Hoover was out of the country for the census (he was over in China building barricades during the Boxer Revolution). But for the most part, presidential occupational pedigrees look pretty similar right up until 1910.
That’s when you find Harry S. Truman working on a farm in Missouri, while a young Dwight Eisenhower labors away as a “refrigerating engineer” down in Texas.
In 1920, Truman’s a farmer and living with the in-laws—talk about the common touch.
But 1940 may be the topper when it comes to variety. There, while Richard Nixon practiced law, JFK was living at home, and LBJ was learning the ropes of Congress, Ronald Regan was working as an actor, and Gerald Ford was coaching football a public school. (He must have been home from Yale for the summer.)
And no “Ex President United States” for Herbert Hoover. He’s gone back to his career as a “mining engineer.”
That’s the end of what the census can tell us about our presidents’ work habits. Census records are closed to the public for 72 years, making 1940 the most recent census available. We’ll have to wait until 2022 to find more presidential occupations. By then, who knows what new occupational skills we’ll have seen in the White House?