Tuesday, March 6, 2012

Lux mausoleum

Here's another mausoleum among the many that dot Mt. View Cemetery.  Mr. Lux emigrated from Alsace to New York in 1838.  By 1853 he had migrated to San Francisco where he worked as a butcher.  Within a few years he joined in a partnership and ultimately became a cattle and land baron, said to own 1/7 of California.  Quite a story.  This mausoleum seems modest for someone who was fabulously wealthy.  For a more detailed biography, visit the above link.

And for more cemetery wanderings be sure and visit Julie's Taphophile Tragics.

16 comments:

  1. It is difficult to imagine any one person ever becoming so wealthy again from owning cattle!

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  2. Fantastic picture. It does seem rather understated.

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  3. The mausoleum looks a little like a masonic temple! It almost seems secretive for all its impressive structure!

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  4. Wow! It still looks quite grand to me. Bu then again all I want marking my burial site is a simple plaque.

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  5. PS: Jut thinking about Gemma's comment re: Masonic temple... "Lux" is light in Latin. I wonder if he was a mason?

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  6. Interesting picture. Wonder if the mausoleum is still used by the family?

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  7. Mountain View cemetery will give you great photographs for a year of Tuesdays! One seventh of California? I wonder why we don't hear of Lux millionaire heirs today.

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  8. IT looks pretty spiffy to me...I cant imagine having something like that in my family cemetery!!

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  9. I like it. It is slightly understated, yet grand at the same time.

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  10. I love your cemetery pictures so much that if I ever get to Oakland (and I will I've decided) Mt. View will be the first place I go!

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  11. True, it's not excessively ornate, but it is still on a rather imposing scale. Perhaps luxuriously appointed on the interior ?

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  12. Very droll, Owen!

    I find this gentleman's name to be fascinating, too. When I first saw your photograph without having read the text, I thought of the biblical 'lux aeterna', meaning eternal light.

    Perhaps it was not so much the cattle that made him wealth, as the land on which to range his cattle. There are so many wealthy people nowadays with a low profile. All we hear about are the ones who think that their wealth 'entitles' them to attention as well.

    To my eyes, this is still a most imposing mausoleum. It is just not ornate. I do hope that family members still take advantage of Mr Lux's far-sightedness.

    Thanks for this, Carolyn. I owe you an email. I am working my way through them.

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  13. interesting... i still think too that it is pretty big! a stone would be sufficient...
    but from immigrant to butcher to fabulously wealthy is quite impressive!

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  14. 1/7 of California?! I'm always very apprehensive regarding people who get this rich in such a short time... Well, at least, he was not a politician!

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  15. 1/7 of California? Could that be possible?

    And be virtually forgotten today?

    Fascinating.

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