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Lehmann family
This so-called "Empty Mausoleum" was once owned by Ernst J. Lehmann, who established The Fair, a Chicago department store, in 1875. Born in Mecklenburg-Schwerin, Germany, in 1849, Lehmann came to America in 1858 and was considered a pioneer in the department store business. Legend has it that Lehmann had been a friend of the Haase family and helped them run the picnic grounds on this land before the cemetery was established. One account indicates that he may have piloted a pleasure boat drawn by geese on the Des Plaines River.
Lehmann eventually suffered a breakdown, attributed to overwork, and he spent the last decade of his life in sanitariums, dying in White Plains, New York, on January 5, 1900. His son, Edward J., ran the store in his absence.
According to an illustration on a 1905 letterhead for German Waldheim Cemetery, "E. J. Lehmann Memorial" was carved along the roofline of the mausoleum. Originally, six bodies were buried in the mausoleum, but in 1920, they were all moved to an even more impressive mausoleum on an island in Graceland Cemetery in Chicago; the crypt has been empty ever since. Also see Frank Lehmann.
Numerous sources were used in the compilation of these entries including but not limited to:
Graveyards of Chicago by Matt Hucke and Ursula Bielski -- a book which describes many of the Chicago area cemeteries.
Other specific references are notes within individual entries.
We intend on adding much more information as it becomes available. Please feel free to contact me at j.arbuthnot@sbcglobal.net. I will route your email through our other researchers.
Last Modified: 01/21/2003