John Jennings
Occupation:
Dale and Bumgardner Payroll. This is about where 258 Rondo would have been located. Teamster John Jennings was born in Scotland in 1858 and emigrated in 1888. He worked on the grading of the Capitol grounds.
Scottish
Child term for individuals born in Scotland
John Colquhoun
Occupation:
John Colquhoun was born in Scotland in 1875 and emigrated in 1888. He was active in the Minneapolis Journeymen Stone Cutters and served as president of the branch in 1902 and again in 1905. Colquhoun and his wife raised a large family in this house in Minneapolis as he worked as a stone cutter. He died here in 1915.
James McKenzie
Occupation:
James McKenzie was born in Scotland in 1858 and emigrated in 1881. He was an activist in the Journeyman Stone Cutters Union and held several offices in the St. Paul Local while he was working on the Capitol. He and his wife, Helen, raised a family here in St. Paul while he worked as a stone cutter.
William J. Hutcheson
Occupation:
William J. Hutcheson was half of the Purdy and Hutcheson Co., a Chicago based ornamental sculpture firm, that did the stone carving at the Capitol. Hutcheson was born in Scotland in 1857 and died in St Paul in 1907. Like the other stone carvers he was a member of the Journeyman Stone Cutters of North America and he cleared into the St. Paul local in February of 1900. Hutcheson had worked as a stone carver in Paris and Glasgow before coming to America. In the U.S. he worked in New York in 1888 and also on Burton Hall at the University of Minnesota in 1894. He settled in St.
Purdy & Hutcheson, Sculptors letterhead
Cass Gilbert collection, New York Historical Society
Setting one of six Virtues statues in place above Capitol main entrance. The statues were designed by sculptor Daniel Chester French and carved by stonecutters working for Purdy-Hutcheson.
Photo courtesy of New York Historical Society
Setting one of the six "Virtues" statues. The man with the pipe is probably Nils Nelson, foreman for setting statues, columns and other stone at the Minnesota Stater Capitol.
Image courtesy of New York Historical Society. Used with permission.
William Aitken
Occupation:
1899 Saint Paul City Directory. William Aitken (1847-1929) was born in Scotland and came to America in 1886. The Union Advocate newspaper of April 1, 1904 reported that he and fellow Capitol stone mason N.I. Nelson were serving on a committee of the Stone Masons Union together. Aitkin and his wife, Margaret, raised their seven children in this house as he worked as a stone mason.
James Ross
Occupation:
James Ross was active in the Journeyman Stone Cutters Union and served as vice president of the Local in 1901 and delegate to the St. Paul Trades and Labor Assembly in 1902. He was born in Scotland in 1857 and emigrated in 1886. By 1906 he had moved on to Winnepeg.
Alexander Fraser
Occupation:
Stone cutter and stone carver Alexander Fraser was born in February 1855 in Nairnshire, Scotland and immigrated to the US with his father Alexander Fraser, Sr. They arrived in America on April 8, 1870 on the ship SS Europa (to see a transcribed copy of the Europa's passenger manifest click here. Alexander Sr is #315 and Alexander Jr is #316 on this list). His father did not make it to Minnesota.
John Davidson
Occupation:
Scottish bricklayer John Davidson worked on the Capitol for many years and is also in the Payroll records. He was the son of a stone cutter, born in Scotland in 1873, and emigrated with his parents in 1883. Davidson and his wife, Anna, raised a large family in St. Paul as he worked as a bricklayer. He died here in 1947.
