Who Built Our Capitol?

1904 City Directory. Milton Young worked as a stonecutter on the Capitol. George Keys also lived here.

March 1902 beam painting payroll. Joseph Wiltner Jr. worked building scaffolding for the painting of steel beams in 1902. He was born in New York in 1880, the son of Joseph Wiltner Sr. who worked on the Capitol for several years. He eventually moved to Wisconsin where he died in 1962.

Staff Payroll February 1906. Eva Good was 18 years old in 1906 and got hired as a telephone operator at the new Capitol. She worked at that occupation for many years and was still living in St. Paul, single, and working as an operator at a bank in 1940.

Cleaning payroll July 1905. Nellie Downing worked on a crew cleaning the Capitol. She was born in Iowa in 1886. In the 1905 City Directory she said she was employed by Hart and Murphy, a cigar manufacturer. Fellow Capitol cleaner Jennie Sheeran also worked for Hart and Murphy.

Payroll for cleaning July 1905. Josephine Dixon (or Dickson) was born in Minnesota in 1884 to German parents, John and Elizabeth Scharff. She worked on the cleaning crew at the Capitol in July of 1905. Elizabeth Scharff also worked on the crew. Josie's mother and sister also lived at this house in 1905, both named Elizabeth Scharff.

Cleaning Payroll July 1905. Sarah Constant worked on a cleaning crew at the Capitol in July of 1905. Fellow cleaners, Jennie and Josie Sheeran also lived here.

Dale and Bumgardner payroll. Michael was born in St. Paul in 1879. He worked as a laborer on the grading of the Capitol grounds.

Dale and Bumgardner payroll. Jerome Drew was born of German parents in 1869 in Minnesota. He worked as a teamster on grading the Capitol grounds.

Most of the workers who constructed the Minnesota Capitol belonged to unions. A specific union affiliation has not been found for Jerome Drew, but other Teamsters in St. Paul at the time the Capitol was built were members of Local 120 (co-founded by John Geary, another Teamster who did grading work at the Capitol), so Drew was most likely a member of the local too.

Capitol Staff Payroll February 1906. Augusta Tate was born in New York in 1878. Her father, Joseph Wiltner, who worked on the Capitol and got hired as a janitor there also lived at this house. Augusta was a "scrub woman" on the Capitol staff. The Wiltner family had lived in Stillwater, MN when Augusta was young, but Augusta married Charles Tate in 1899, and they moved around - North Dakota, back to Wisconsin - until Charles died in 1905 and she and her children moved in with her parents in St. Paul. She lived the rest of her life in St. Paul and died here in 1962.

Cleaning Payroll July 1905. Jennie (b.1888) and her sister Josie (b.1890) both lived here in 1905 and worked on a crew cleaning the Capitol. Note they were only 15 and 17 at that time and living on their own. Fellow cleaner Sarah Constant lived here with them. In the 1905 City Directory Jennie said she was employed by Hart and Murphy, a cigar manufacturer. Nellie Downing also worked for Hart and Murphy.