John Solberg
Occupation:
Dale and Bumgardner Payroll. John Solberg was born in Norway in 1847 and came to America with his wife and three sons in 1888. He worked as a laborer on the grading of the Capitol grounds.
Individual Stories
Frederick Sommers
Occupation:
1902 City Directory. Frederick Sommers worked as a clerk in Butler Bros. office and later got hired as a custodian at the Capitol.
Samuel Spencer
Occupation:
1904 Payroll, 1905 Census and City Directory. Samuel Spencer was born in New York in 1838 and moved to Minnesota in 1887. He had previously been a farmer, and in his 60's worked as a watchman at the Capitol.
Camille Steffen
Occupation:
Camille Steffen was born in France in 1877 and came to America in 1879. In 1900 Steffin moved to 272 Strugis where he lived with his step-father, Louis Pinsounnault, also a stone cutter at the Capitol. They were both active in the Stone Cutters Union while here and by 1910 they had moved on and were working in Los Angeles.
Benjamin Stephens
Occupation:
1899-1904 City Directories, Staff Payroll and 1905 Census. African- American Benjamin Stephens (1872-1940 was born in Georgia and came to St. Paul with the marble from that state and worked with the machinery in the stone cutting shed. He stayed in St. Paul, raising his family here and got a job as janitor at the new Capitol in 1905 and 1906 but soon went back to the construction trades working as a "stone finisher" for many years.
Nels Stewart
Occupation:
1902 City Directory. Nels Stewart worked as a laborer on the Capitol.
Thomas Stewart
Occupation:
1897 Grant Payroll and City Directory. Thomas Stewart worked for George Grant as a laborer
Robert Stiller
Occupation:
1905 Payroll and 1903 St. Paul City Directory. Robert Stiller (or Steller) was born in Germany in 1884 worked as a laborer on the Capitol. He lived in St. Paul beginning in 1890.
Michael Strom
Occupation:
Michael Strom was an active member of the Journeymen Stone Cutters' Association dating back as far as 1890 when he was elected recording secretary of the local Branch. He was born in Illinois of German parents in 1865 and moved to Minnesota in about 1885. In 1899 he helped build an elaborate float for Labor Day parade which featured marble from the Capitol. Strom and his wife, Sophia, raised a large family in St. Paul. He died here in 1918 and is buried in Elmhurst Cemetery, St.
Isaac Suddeth
Occupation:
1899,1900, 1902 and 1904 City Directories. Isaac Suddeth (1865-1909) was an African-American from Tate, Georgia where the marble was quarried. He first came here to work on the Capitol alone in 1899 but by 1905 he was living at this address with his wife and five children. Fellow Capitol worked, Judge Jarrett, also lived here in 1905. They stayed here and Suddeth died in in St. Paul in 1909.
Isaac's son, Oscar, born in Georgia in 1887, worked on the Capitol as a "polisher" in 1904 at the age of 17. Oscar died in St. Paul in 1915.