Using data from the 1880 manuscript census, city directories, and R. G. Dun
and Company credit reports for Detroit, Michigan, this study examines the family economy of
entrepreneurial households. Two family work strategies are examined for a sample of 1,881
male self-employed and wage-earning household heads: family enterprise, and the joint labor
force participation of family members. The family organization of business is related to high
occupational status and wealth among the self-employed. The joint labor force participation of
multiple family members is most characteristic of unskilled wage earners in comparison to other
occupational strata. Modes of entrepreneurial family economy reflect the middle-class status of
the self-employed and their social and economic homogeneity relative to wage earners.
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