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A restoration crew from Rochester has been working on the 120-year-old Hinkly family mausoleum at Maplewood Cemetery, and it’s been completed in time for Memorial Day visitors Monday.
The structure, made of Sioux quartzite, was falling into disrepair, and Vance Walgrave, Luverne, worked with Hinkly family members to arrange for the restoration.
“The whole west side was bulging out,” said Walgrave, vice president of Maplewood Cemetery Association.
“They’re completely tuckpointing the whole thing. They have to pull some of the big blocks and put them back.”
To address the structural issues, Walgrave contacted Jim Kaiser, great-grandson of RB Hinkly, who built the mausoleum in 1899.
Kaiser, who lives in the Twin Cities, said there are 16 Hinkly family members interred in the mausoleum’s 18 crypts.
His brother, George Kaiser, who was cremated in 2021, will be interred there, and his sister, Mary Kaiser, intends to be cremated and interred there.
“As far I as I know, once my brother and sister are interred, that’s going to be that,” he said about the mausoleum crypts being filled.
The names on the crypts inside the structure trace the Hinkly family history back to Benjamin Hinkly (1824-1896) who studied medicine, traveled the world, and settled on a career in banking.
His son, Ray Benjamin “RB” Hinkly (1860-1937) studied law and was a builder, inventor, banker, traveler and had many other interests.
He was influential in Luverne’s founding and built the historic Victorian home (now known as the Hinkly House), which was the first in town to have plumbing, electricity and telephone service.
Among RB’s children were Jim’s grandfather, Bryant S. Hinkly. “He went by Stanton, but people knew him as Stub,” Jim said.
Stub’s daughter Elizabeth Hinkly, and her husband, George Kaiser, were Jim’s parents.
“My mom used to tell stories about RB,” Jim said when he was in Luverne in April. “The problem is we couldn’t remember them. Thankfully the museum here has those stories.”
Jim’s mother grew up in Luverne and returned in her later years to help with some of the historic renovations.
According to Maplewood Cemetery history, RB Hinkly bought the plot for the mausoleum in 1894 after his infant daughter, Mabel, passed away.
His father, Benjamin, had died in 1896, and in 1899 he began forming the stones to build the mausoleum. Once it was complete, his father and daughter were relocated there.
Sister Mariella Hinkly (Jim’s aunt) was the last family member to be buried there in 2018.
As for himself, Jim said he will be buried next to his late wife, Kristin Fayth, in Modum Cemetery south of Garvin where she grew up.
Meanwhile he’s working with the Maplewood Cemetery Board and the Luverne Area Community Foundation to establish a fund that would generate interest to support future maintenance on the mausoleum. Any additional interest, he said, could also support Maplewood Cemetery.
Maplewood Cemetery Board seeks funds for Chapel repair
Walgrave said the Hinkly mausoleum came to the attention of the Maplewood Cemetery Board when its members were planning repairs for the Maplewood Chapel.
“We had the architect out here last year, and he noticed the mausoleum needed work.”
Walgrave said the Maplewood Chapel, which is on the National Register of Historic Places, will require upwards of $200,000 for a complete restoration.
“You never know with these old buildings what’s going to come up along the way.”
He said plans are underway to raise funds for the chapel repair.