The New York City Marble Cemetery

Vaults 182 & 224 - Booraem

6 Sep 1844 — Francis Diederichs, 1^st husband of Catherine Van Giesen Booraem
19 Oct 1844 — Sarah Booraem Lienau, dau. of Hendrik Booraem (II)
17 Aug 1855 — L. B. Lienau
15 Jul 1859 — L. C. Lienau
19 Dec 1861 — C. Van G. Lienau (would this be the daughter of Catherine and Detlef Lienau?)
9 Dec 1864 — C. F. Wreaks, husband of Mary Booraem
13 Feb 1867 — Toler B[ooraem] Wreaks
18 Mar 1873 — Ernest Lienau (later removed and cremated)
17 Jun 1877 — Herman A. M. Lienau (later removed and cremated)
27 Aug 1877 — Georgiana Booraem, wife of Thomas Lovell Booraem
8 Feb 1879 — M. Pauline Lienau

Where was Hendrik II buried?

Interments in Vault #224, purchased 12 Dec 1901 by Robert E. Booraem and the estate of Frances D. Booraem 9 Feb 1902 — Henry A. Booraem, Cornelia V. V. Booraem, and Frances D. Booraem, all transferred from Vault 182 23 Sep 1918 — Robert E. Booraem

The Booraem Family

Vaults 182 and 224 hold the remains of members of this family, all descended from or married to descendants of Hendrik Booraem, who was one of the cemetery's founders in 1830.

Vault 182

Hendrik or Henry Booraem — he used both the Dutch and the English form of his first name — was baptized in New Brunswick, N.J., 23 December 1784, the second son of Nicholas Booraem and his second wife, Mercy Rolfe. He was of the fourth generation born in America to a Dutch family, originally Van Boerum, which first came to New Amsterdam in 1649. His father, Nicholas Booraem, was a successful millwright and Revolutionary veteran in Milltown, N.J.

Hendrik Booraem left New Brunswick in his late teens and went to New York City, where he appeared in the 1806 city directory as an accountant. By 1811 he was a partner in a mercantile firm, Wiggins & Booraem. His business prospered in the commercial boom following the War of 1812, and by the 1820s the New Jersey farm boy had become a rich merchant, an importer of silks and fine fabrics, and known for his elegant manners and his carriage bearing a coat of arms. His store was on Pearl Street just north of Wall. His home address changed frequently; as the city grew, Booraem moved his family into newly fashionable neighborhoods. By the early 1830s, when he joined in founding the Marble Cemetery, he was living at 481 Broadway, near Eighth Street.

In 1833 Hendrik Booraem developed a serious disease of an unspecified nature. Attempts at treatment by New York doctors failed, and he decided to seek treatment in Paris. With his wife and his second son, Henry Augustus, he crossed the Atlantic on the ship Poland, and died at Le Havre, France, just before landing, in March 1834, at the age of 49. His remains were brought back to New York in a lead coffin, and he was interred in the Marble Cemetery in January 1835.

Hendrik Booraem married twice. His first wife, Hannah Radley Morrell, was the stepdaughter of the New York merchant Thomas Lovell. She bore him seven children and died in 1823 at the age of 30. His second wife, Julia Toler, was from a well-known New Jersey family. She bore him four children and survived him. Neither of the wives is buried with Hendrik, to the family's knowledge. Julia is buried in New Jersey, and Hannah's burial place is unknown.

Four of Hendrik and Hannah's seven children lived to adulthood. All of them are buried in the Marble Cemetery, mostly in vault 182.

1. Thomas Lovell Booraem, the oldest son (1812-1842), took over the family business on his father's death but was bought out by his younger brother, Henry Augustus. He married Georgiana Lyall, daughter of Rev. Thomas Lyall, the rector of Christ Church. She died in 1877 and is in vault 182 with her husband. They had two sons. One went west and died in Gold Hill, Nevada. The other became a ne'er-do-well, lived on Long Island, and had a large family. Neither is buried here.
2. Henry Augustus Booraem (1815-1889) and his wife Cornelia Van Vorst (1818-1890) were both interred in vault 182, but their remains were later moved to vault 224. They are discussed further below.
3. Catherine Van Giesen Booraem (1819-1861) married first Francis Diedrichs, d. 1844, and second Detlef Lienau, a leading architect of that era, who survived her. By Diedrichs she had a daughter, Sarah Adeline, who married Louis Koester of Cette, France, and spent the rest of her life in Europe. By Lienau she had at least five children: August, Detlef, Catherine Cornelia, Lucy, and Louise. The remains of Lucy and Louise, who died young, are in vault 182, as well as those of Catherine and of her first husband Francis Diedrichs.
4. Sarah Adeline Booraem (1823-1844) married Michael Lienau, Detlef's brother. She had two sons before dying quite young. Lienau returned to Germany and took the boys with him; they both married and had families there.

Hendrik and Julia had three children to live to maturity. Only one has family buried here.
5. Hugh Toler Booraem (1826-1887), lawyer;
6. William E. Booraem (1828-after 1903), importer;
7. Mary Kennedy Booraem (1833-after 1917), married Charles F. Wreaks. Wreaks died in 1864 and was buried in vault 182, as was a son, Toler Booraem Wreaks, who died in 1867.

Vault 224

When Henry Augustus and Cornelia Booraem died in 1889 and 1890 and were interred in vault 182, they joined a large number of relatives. Their daughter, Frances, felt that the family vault was becoming too crowded and made provision in her will for purchasing an additional resting place. When she died in 1900, her brother, Robert E. Booraem, followed through by purchasing vault 224 from the Green family. He moved his parents' remains there, as well as those of his sister. When he died in 1918 he was buried there as well.

Henry Augustus Booraem (1815-1889) took over his father's business, which promptly went bankrupt in the financial panic of 1837. For the rest of his life he was a partner in the importing house of L. and B. Curtis and made frequent trips to Europe. He married an heiress, Cornelia Van Vorst (1818-1890), descendant of the first European family to settle in New Jersey, whose father owned most of the land on which Jersey City is now built. They lived in a mansion overlooking Harsimus Cove on the Hudson River. The cove is now filled in and part of downtown Jersey City.

Henry Augustus and Cornelia had ten children:
1. John Van Vorst (1838-1925), consulting engineer, lived in Brooklyn
2. Anna Miller, died young;
3. Frances Diedrichs, (1842-1900)
4. Cornelia, died young;
5. Henry Lienau (1846-1892), lived in New Brunswick, N.J.
6. Josephine Bruniquel(1848-1915), married Augustus Zabriskie
7. Louis Vacher (1853-1915), lawyer in New York City, lived in Essex Fells
8. Augustus (1855-1923), owned properties in Jersey City, lived in Ridgewood
9. Robert Elmer (1857-1918), mining engineer
10. Rudolph Morrell (1859-1938), engineer with American Sugar Company.

Of these, Frances and Robert, the two children who survived to adulthood but did not marry, are the only ones buried with their parents in vault 224.