The details on this Egyptian-style mausoleum are exquisite. There are 8 niches inside, but my photo didn’t capture all the names, and to be honest, I presumed someone else would have documented this one already, but that was not the case!
Three generations are definitely entombed within, including Colonel Joseph Triner, Jr, who fought in both World Wars and is also memorialized with a military headstone outside the mausoleum (his obituary states that he was to be entombed in the family mausoleum).
The family wealth appears to have come from Joseph Jr’s father, who was written up in an early history of Cook County as a successful chemist and entrepreneur who started his own medicine company (the cited popular products are various kinds of tonics so I’m inferring patent medicine from that).
Though the history says the business, begun in 1890, was an immediate success, on the 1900 census, the family is living with 2 boarders. It’s possible this was a census-taker mistake, but by the 1910 census, the family had three live-in servants, and their widowed grandmother also lived with them.
Son Leo died in 1904, but the rest of the Triner children lived full lives. Grandfather Matthew died in 1905, and it’s likely the mausoleum had either already been purchased in preparation for the elder Triner’s eventual passing or was purchased for Leo when he died far too young. Grandmother Triner died in 1915 and sadly was followed too soon by her son Joseph Sr in 1918.
Katerina Triner lived another 20 years surrounded by her children and grandchildren and died in 1938. Joseph Jr died in 1969, and I presume his wife eventually joined him there – perhaps a future trip will allow me to find out who the 8th resident is (if there is someone in that niche).
RIP Triners
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