Making a social statement is a part of life that continues after death, visitors to North Iowa cemeteries will discover.

Cemeteries are places of pilgrimage and prayer, research areas for genealogists and destinations for joggers, walkers and those just out for Sunday drives.

But they’re also living museums of tombstone and monumental art.

At the top of the burial heap are mausoleums, large, classically inspired and costly tombs commissioned by some as status symbols and by others because of an aversion to being planted six feet under.

The word comes from the tomb King Mausolus of Turkey, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World.

“They’re really works of art, a lasting memorial for the family or for successful people,” said Robert Fells, external chief operation officer for the International Cemetery, Cremation and Funeral Association in Sterling, Va.

Some are private and some are public, containing multiple burial chambers to be sold on an as-needed basis.

Individual tombs or crypts scattered around a cemetery are junior members of the mausoleum family; and columbariums, containing niches to hold cremated remains, are among the newest additions to many burial grounds.

But it tends to be the big boys — mausoleums built to impress — that speak loudest.

At Mason City’s Elmwood-St. Joseph Cemetery, a stone mausoleum built in 1908 for William Smith of Marshalltown and members of his family resembles a little house, with double metal doors, columns etched on either side of the doors and evergreen trees flanking the front. See photo, Page A1.

The inhabitants are William Smith (buried in 1908), Inez Elizabeth Mills (1918), Elizabeth C. Smith (1928), Charles E. Smith (1932), William Smith and Dott Smith (1976).

Nearby, an elaborate mausoleum of brick, stone and marble with granite columns, Corinthian ornamentation and a door with iron gate was built in 1910 for members of the Gale-Emsley families of Mason City.

Thomas G. Emsley, who died in 1904, was founder, in 1875, and first president of City National Bank in Mason City. His widow, Mary Ann (Church) Emsley Adams, a  businesswoman, took over his job as bank president when he died. She later married Charles A. Adams, a Mason City court reporter. Mary Emsley Adams worked to establish a free public library in Mason City and was an active suffragette. She died in 1931.

Mabel Emsley Gale, who died in 1904, was the daughter of Thomas and Mary Ann Emsley. She married Absalom H. Gale, a vice president of City National Bank, who had an interest in one of the cement plants and owned valuable realty in Mason City and the surrounding area. A.H. Gale, as he was known, also served as a state senator. He died in 1923.

Cecil Emsley Gale, son of A.H. and Mabel Emsley Gale,  died in 1933 at the age of 38. Blind since birth, he was said to be an excellent pianist.

Another notable rough-hewn stone mausoleum was built in 1912 for members of the George Vermilya family. George Vermilya, one of the pioneers of Mason City, is buried elsewhere in the cemetery. See photo, Page A1

The mausoleum houses his family, including his wife Helen Vermilya, who died in 1898, and their four children: daughter Lida, or Lidya, who died in 1892; daughter Grace V. Dilts, 1924; son Theron Vermilya, owner of the Vermilya Cafe in Mason City, who died in 1933, and his wife, Belle Vermilya, who died in 1949; and daughter Jessie Vermilya Decker and her husband, Frank Decker, both of whom died in 1943.

Dr. Clarence W. Swale, who died in 1915, and his wife Lillian (Garmidge) Swale, 1921, and a son, Clarence W. Swale, Jr., who died in 1907, are buried in identical crypts, built in 1915. Dr. Swale was a distinguished surgeon and gynecologist, educated at home and in London, Berlin, Paris and Copenhagen. One of the founders and president of City Park Hospital, he also served as a Mason City alderman.

The best-known mausoleum at Elmwood, also built in 1915, is the granite structure built for Minnie Melson by her husband, Joshua G. Melson. Four years older than her husband, Minnie was a popular Mason City school teacher. When she died, her husband hired prairie school architect Barry Byrne to design a prairie style mausoleum in the same vein as the home Melson had built for her in Rock Crest, called “the Castle.” Built of rough-hewn stone, the structure is massive but simple. It has a door and a window, through which a bench inside the structure can be viewed.

Joshua Melson was a Mason City building contractor-developer, who purchased and platted the River Heights area and helped develop Rock Glen-Rock Crest. He built Lincoln School, the Congregational Church and the first footbridge over Willow Creek. Melson was among the first Mason City residents to own an automobile and the first to own an airplane. He died in 1946 in Los Angeles at the age of 81. He and his second wife, Julia, who died in 1956, are buried outside the Melson mausoleum.

In Forest City, the mausoleum Dr. William Steele, a dentist, built for his wife, Etta, is in Oakland Cemetery.

Etta died in 1899. Steele remarried and moved to Minnesota and is buried elsewhere..

Ruth Leibrand, a historian and charter member of the Lime Creek Genealogical Society, collected a May 31, 1900, article from The Winnebago Summit that telss us, among other things, that the structure’s base is marble and its walls, of Bedford, Inc., stone.

“The roof consists of two solid marble slabs 4 inches thick,” according to the report. “ The floor is one solid marble slab 4 inches thick. The front leading to the door is a Bedford stone walk 8 feet long and 3 feet wide in one solid piece.  

“The inside door is one solid marble slab two inches thick. The outer door is of maleable iron punch rail.”

Thomas M. Atherton, interred in a mausoleum in Osage City Cemetery, was born in 1829 in Pennsylvania, came to Mitchell County in 1860, and founded the Mitchell County Press (now the Press-News) in 1865 in the city of West Mitchell.

Atherton moved the Press to Osage on May 20, 1869, according to the A.T. Andreas Illustrated Historical Atlas of the State of Iowa, 1875.

Atherton was West Mitchell’s first postmaster, and served as superintendent of the Mitchell county schools.

The doors contain especially fine decorative metal work.

Back at Elmwood-St. Joseph, a simple vertical two-person crypt built in 1962 is the final resting place of Albert L. Lake and his wife Clara (Hanson) Lake, who died in 1963. Albert Lake, a Mason City contractor, built many businesses, including the Clear Lake Fish Hatchery and Radio Chapel in Mason City, and more than 150 houses. A native of Norway, Lake fought in World War I. He died in 1962 at the age of 82. Clara Lake was a Mason City elementary school teacher.

A graceful and modern stone crypt and Elmowwd-St. Joseph, set at an angle so as to be highly visible,  in memory of Ralph Height, Jr., a talented Mason City organist and director of music at St. James Lutheran Church when he died. He was killed at the age of 29 in a car accident.

The most recent mausoleum is a small single-vault structure built in 2004 for Martha (Thomson) Barclay. A widely-known English instructor at North Iowa Area Community College, gourmet cook, world traveler, public speaker and frequent hostess, she died at the age of 83.

In Charles City, a modern stone mausoleum at Sunnyside Memory Gardens is an example of a community mausoleum. It includes burial space for 64, most of which are still open. The earliest burial date is 1983.

Dick Johnson contributed to this article.