Collections offer clues to history of Stonecutters

Along with a silk union banner, other items in the MHS collections that document St. Paul stonecutters include a copy of the constitution and bylaws for the St. Paul Branch of the Journeymen Stonecutters Association of North America, a document which makes clear many of the issues that were important to building trades workers late in the l9th century: passing skills down from father to son, the crucial role of a man\’s tools in his trade, the eight-hour movement, and the struggle against convict labor. Article XVII regulated the number of apprentices in each stone yard, and noted "stonecutters\’ sons in every case to have the preference."

Discussions of tools made clear that employers paid for sharpening and provided for inspection of tool boxes going to and from the blacksmith. Furthermore, "Any member in possession of another member\’s tools, no matter how said member came into possession of the tools, shall be compelled to give them up to the owner when asked to do so, under a penalty of $10."

Photo from the collection of the Minnesota Historical Society.

The eight-hour movement was built into the constitution, as befits a union with a banner that promoted the eight-hour day, with Article XIV stating "Eight hours shall constitute a day\’s work for members of this Branch." It allowed for overtime and then added, "Fitters will be allowed to work nine hours on week days, the extra hour to be charged for at the current rate." And convict labor was dealt with succinctly: "this Association will not sanction the introduction of cut stone from any state\’s prison, neither will it sanction any of its members working at or for any building where any part or all of the stone has been cut by convict labor. "

Beyond that vital document, no records of the local exist in MHS collections. Therefore we can\’t tell who the members were, where they lived, or what issues they debated at their twice monthly meetings at various locations. It seems likely that the stonecutters union in St. Paul was first organized in 1878, though it reorganized in 1888. We know something about the frequency of their strikes because historian George Engberg has speculated that the Pinkerton National Detective Agency may have opened a St. Paul branch in 1887 at least partly because of the large number of strikes by cigarmakers and stonecutters in the city. A letter from a stonecutter who signed himself "Scab at Ulmer" in an 1889 issue of the St. Paul Dispatch discussed some of the difficulties that frequent strikes may have caused for union members. (William H. Ulmer\’s stoneyard was located on the Upper Levee, at the foot of Chestnut Street.)

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Another source that mentions the stonecutters occasionally are the many newspapers published in St. Paul. The stonecutters show up in the fifth division of the 1,500-man Labor Day parade in 1890, marching with the tailors, waiters, and masons to the music of Safranek\’s Band. The previous year the stonecutters had been runners up for the prize banner awarded to the best looking unit in the parade. The 300 printers, dressed in long yellow linen dusters and carrying small canes, won the prize, as almost 1,800 men marched up 7th Street to Banholzer\’s Park for the picnic.

"Each organization carried their banner and some other mark to distinguish them," reported the Dispatch. "One of the stonecutters carried his union\’s banner with the inscription, \’We are the pioneers of the eight-hour system. "\’ Many units wore special hats, like wide, cream-colored slouch hats for the operative plasterers and tall white "plugs" with black bands for the bricklayers.

Issues of the official Trades and Labor Directory of Minnesota between 1892 and 1903 listed several organizations of stonecutters. The St. Paul group belonged to the Journeymen Stone Cutters\’ Union of North America, headquartered in Cincinnati. That union also had locals in Minneapolis, Duluth, Brainerd, and Winona. The names of a few St. Paul members can be gathered from the listings of officers. The secretary in 1895-96 was G.W. McCree of 45 Litchfield Ave. By 1897 R.M. Rogers of 422 Collins had replaced him. In 1900 the president was J.A. McCurdy and the secretary William Ellis; no addresses were listed. Two years later the president was H. Reich, the financial secretary O. Rachneck, and the corresponding secretary C.T. Hubbard. No one in turn-of-the-century St. Paul was making a career out of being a stonecutters union official!

The Biennial Reports of the Minnesota Bureau of Labor Statistics also provide occasional information about St. Paul\’s Journeymen Stonecutters Association during this time period. The 1900-01 volume reports that the union had 65 members, and the local secretary was Frank J. Chase of 367 Walnut St. It also gives particulars about the costs and benefits of being a member in that year, when the initiation fee was $10, the monthly dues was 50 cents, and the accident benefit was $5 per week. There were no sick benefits, no strike or out-of-work benefits, and no funeral benefit or insurance. Union stonecutters in St. Paul at the turn of the last century worked 8 hours a day, 48 hours a week, for an average daily wage of $3.20, paid on an hourly basis.

To get some sense of where the St. Paul stonecutters were working, city directories are helpful. In 1880-81 the section on Stone Dealers and Cutters included seven firms, among them Adam Rau, Sauter & Rau, and Breen & Young. Many of the stoneyards were located on 9th Street between Robert and Minnesota. Adam Rau\’s yard was on the West Side. Five members of the Rau family worked in the stone business, all living on the West Side. Adam Rau and his foreman, Nicholas Rau, lived at the same address as the stoneyard, the corner of Oak and Gale. The other Rau men worked for the Sauter & Rau yard on 9th Street. Michael Roche\’s stoneyard was also on 9th Street, but he and stonecutter James Roche lived on the West Side, as did several other stonecutters listed: August, Julius, and Wilhelm Zemke, Frank Zobel, Frederick W. Zollman, Sr. and William Zollman.

Ten years later the cut stone contractors listed had shifted to the Upper Levee. William H. Ulmer\’s yard was at the foot of Chestnut and J.A. Young and Son was nearby. Edwin and Philip Ulmer both worked for William. Philip lived on the West Side, but William and Edwin lived near the stoneyard in Uppertown, at Douglas and Goodrich. The letter from the scab indicates that Ulmer was not a union yard in 1889, but Young\’s yard was union.

From the surnames it appears that many Germans were stonecutters in the city, though many names of union officials were old-stock American. Without membership lists it is difficult to tell much about the ethnic make-up of the 19th-century union.

Another source, a biographical sketch in the MHS manuscripts collections, brings another ethnic group under the St. Paul stonecutters banner: African Americans. Butler Ryan Construction Company recruited skilled stoneworkers from the South to work on the State Capitol building beginning around the turn of the century. African-American stonecutter Benjamin Stephens and his cousin, Ike Suddeth, were brought by Butler-Ryan from Georgia to work as stonecutters on the Capitol. Stephens, whose granddaughter later lived in the house he bought at 1031 Park St., also worked on Mechanic Arts High School (now demolished), the old historical society building, the public library, and many other buildings. Every Sunday morning on the way to services at Pilgrim Baptist Church he pointed out to his grandchildren how each stone in the Capitol "was cut to match perfectly the stone above or below it."

Debbie Miller is research supervisor at the Minnesota Historical Society. Readers with information, records, photographs, or other materials about St. Paul\’s stonecutters are asked to contact her at (612) 296-2264.


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