Gustave J. Bergman was born in Sweden in 1875 and emigrated in 1889. He raised a large family here in St. Paul while working as a machine operator in the stone industry. Alfred Mortenson also lived at this address in 1899.

Most of the workers who constructed the Minnesota Capitol belonged to unions. A specific union affiliation has not been found for Bergman. Most other Capitol workers in the stone trades were organized in St. Paul at the time the Capitol was built, but there was a debate during that period about whether machine operators should be in the same union as craft artisans who worked with hand tools and related steam powered pneumatic carving tools. Stone polishers and other stone machine operators were eventually organized but at this point in the research, we're not sure if these machine workers, like Bergaman, were unionized between 1896 and 1905.