Joseph H. Bourgeault was the son of Joseph Bourgeault who supervised the stone cutting for the superstructure. He was born in Canada in 1875 and came to the U.S. with his family in 1880. Joseph H. played the clarinet and always gave his occupation as "musician" in Census records and, in fact, newspapers of the day announced that he was a soloist for a local orchestra. The 1901 City Directory, however, lists him as a foreman for Butler-Ryan and the Stone Cutter Journal of January 1899 reported that he was the shop foreman for the job.