Individual Stories

Elizabeth Scharff

Occupation: 
Cleaner

Cleaning Payroll July 1905. There were two Elizabeth Scharffs, mother and daughter, living at this address at the time of the 1905 Census. We believe the younger one, only 15 at the time, worked om the cleaning crew. Her sister, Josie Dixon, who lived here with her also worked on the crew.

Herman Schlink

Occupation: 
Stone worker
Stone cutter

1900 St. Paul City Directory and 1900 Census. Herman Schlink (1870-1950) was born in Minnesota of German parents and spent most of his life in Minneapolis. In addition to his work on the Capitol he is credited with doing most of the stone carving and ornamental plaster work on the Turnblad mansion in Minneapolis which is now houses the American-Swedish Institute.The July 1899 issue of the Stone Cutters' Journal reported that he had been admitted into the St. Paul Local of the Stone Cutters Union on a traveling card from Minneapolis.

George Schmid

Occupation: 
Stone sculptor

George Schmid worked for the stone carving firm Purdy and Hutcheson. In the 1899 CD he listes his occupation as "caster" but in the 1900 Census he is a "stone carver." He was born in Germany in 1855 and came to St. Paul in 1882. An 1889 passport application reveals that in 1889 Schmid, who was a carpenter at that point, traveled to Munich to study to become a sculptor. He raised a large family in St. Paul. This address is from the 1900 Census.

Jacob Schwartz

Occupation: 
Laborer

Dale and Bumgardner payroll. Jacob Schwartz was born in Minnesota of German parents in 1868. He worked on the Capitol as a laborer grading the grounds.

Most of the workers who constructed the Minnesota Capitol belonged to unions. However, it is not clear whether St. Paul laborers were organized during the period when the Capitol was built nor how many laborers or which jobs were represented by a union between 1896 and 1907. So whether Schwartz was a union member during the Capitol construction is currently unknown.

Jacob Schwartz

Occupation: 
Mason

1905 Payroll, St. Paul City Directory and Census. Jacob Schwartz (1858-1951) emigrated from Germany in 1870. He worked as a stonemason on the Capitol and was an activist in the Union and was elected to the executive board of the Local in Dec 1904 and ran for Local President in 1907.

Pages