Clair Biddlecome
Occupation:
1903 City Directory.
Individual Stories
John Biersack
Occupation:
John Biersack (1862-1898), also known as John Biersach or John Prearshek, was working on the Capitol construction as a laborer when he was injured and killed as a result of a 40 foot fall from a derrick on the afternoon of Saturday, Oct. 15, 1898 and died on Oct. 20 at St. Joseph's Hospital. His cause of death was a skull fracture, according to newspaper accounts.
His body was sent home and he was buried in St. Mary's Cemetery, West Bend, Washington County, Wisconsin.
Image courtesy Minnesota Historical Society. Used with permission.
Gustave Bjorkland
Occupation:
1904 City Directory. Norwegian carpenter Gustav Bjorklund was born in about 1867. He joined Carpenter Local 87 in 1899
John Blachowski
Occupation:
Dale and Bumgardner Payroll. John Blachowski was born in Poland in 1853. He and his wife emigrated in 1881. He worked as a laborer on grading the Capitol grounds.
John Boland
Occupation:
City Directory: Fry St. was called Walker St. at this time. John Boland was the superintendent of construction for the Capitol Commission though he lists Butler-Ryan as his employer in the 1898 CD. He was born in Ireland in 1844 and emigrated in 1849. His son, George, worked as a laborer on the Capitol.
Pat Boland
Occupation:
1905 Dale and Bumgardner Payroll. Teamster Pat Boland ("Bolin" in the payroll) was born in Indiana in 1856 and moved to Minnesota about 1880. He worked on the grading of the Capitol grounds.
Alexander Bonner
Occupation:
Adolph Borchardt
Occupation:
1902 Beam painting payroll. Adolph Borchardt appears in the payroll as a laborer, although in the 1902 City Directory he is listed as a marble cutter working for E.M.W. Nelson. He was born in Minnesota in 1871 but by 1905 he had moved on to Monroe, Iowa where he was working as a marble cutter, and by 1910 he was in Des Moines cutting granite.
Albert Bourgeault
Occupation:
Stone cutter Albert Bourgeault lived here with his father Joseph who supervised the stone cutting for Butler-Ryan. Albert's parents had emigrated from Canada in 1880 and he was born in Minnesota in 1883. By 1901, after the superstructure was completed, the father and sons were listed in the City Directory as working for Joseph Bourgeault and Sons. The family had moved back to Canada by 1906.
Joseph Bourgeault
Occupation:
1900 St. Paul City Directory and Census. (In 1898 and 1899 Joseph and his family lived at 684 Wabasha.) Joseph Bourgeault supervised the stone cutting for the Capitol. He was born in 1849 in Montreal and came to the U.S. in 1880. Two of his sons also worked on the Capitol. Albert, born 1883, was a stonecutter and Joseph Henry was a foreman.