His father James Shiely was a contractor[1] whose draying business pulled the marble stone from the railroad to the State Capitol and Cathedral of Saint Paul.

[2]In 1900, Joseph Shiely worked from 7 to 8:30 a.m. in Butler Brothers & Ryan stone cutting blacksmith shop during construction of the state capitol.

He attended Mechanic Arts High School the balance of the morning and returned to the blacksmith shop at 1:30 p.m. to work until 6:00 p.m., all for 50 cents a day.

From 1905 to 1908 he was job foreman and superintendent of construction of buildings, bridges and dams for Newman & Hoy in Minnesota, North Dakota, and Montana.

[4] In 1924 the company secured a contract to build and operate eight ballast producing plants for the Great Northern Railroad.

These plants were located at New London and Brookston, Minnesota; Verendrye, North Dakota; Chinook, Nimrod and Warland, Montana; Olds and Gold Bar, Washington.

Hallett of Crosby, Minnesota to bid on the contract to move gravel from Cole, Montana to the site of the Fort Peck Dam.

Following the stock market collapse and the commencement of the Great Depression, the club encountered significant financial difficulties.

[16] In February 1949, the company was awarded the contract for all the coarse aggregate for Garrison Dam in North Dakota, under the U. S. Corps of Engineers.

[citation needed] In 1951, the company was awarded a second contract by the Corps of Engineers for blanket gravel to be placed under the riprap at Garrison Dam.

[citation needed] With dwindling reserves at their Snelling plant, in January 1950, the company entered into a long—term lease on 2,200 acres of land underlain with sand and gravel on Grey Cloud Island, 15 miles downstream on the Mississippi River from St.

Shiely's only landmark is a monument to his Irish forefathers in the cemetery at the Church of St Thomas in Jessenland Township, which was dedicated in 1971.