The former private cemetery, which at the time was laid out as a burial vault in the dunes, which bears the name "Grote Geest", which in fact became a burial mound of the Herckenrath family due to the sand excavations in the 1920s and 1930s. de Grote Geest in Monster, Netherlands, is the only remaining private cemetery in South Holland.
This brick building was erected in the year 1847 after some tragic family events, the founder of the burial vault is Leon Herckenrath.

After the dune land was excavated there in the twenties and thirties of the twentieth century, the basement was left behind as an elevation between greenhouses that have since been built, these greenhouses have now also been replaced by housing.

The entrance to the former cellar is now a few meters above the ground halfway through the new residential area and can be reached via a brick staircase.

In the basement there are fourteen coffins containing the remains of eleven adults and three small children.
The last funeral took place in 1906.

The Herckenrath family settled in Monster around 1790.
They lived on the old estate Geerbron on Herenstraat, possibly here: https://goo.gl/maps/B8RSsTYJBB52 there is a street named after this family right in front of the white house.

He left for America around the age of 20, where he married Juliette Louise MacCormick in 1823.
After spending 15 years in the United States, the family from the United States, which now consisted of five girls and a boy, left for the Netherlands.
Leon settled with his family on Geerbron and started working as city clerk at the town hall in Monster.

The rapid successive death of some members of the family made him decide to found a family tomb in the Great Spirit, just outside the town of Monster, and not far from Geerbron.
Leon was appointed mayor of Monster in 1847, a position he held until 1854.
After that, he was active as a member of the town of Monster for seven years, Leon had himself portrayed by a photographer before his death in 1861, which was new in his days.

He was buried in the family plot, as was his wife who preceded him in 1856. Six of their fifteen children are buried in the family grave.

Uncle Frans.

There is also an uncle buried, it was uncle Frans Herckenrath from Venlo.
He was a soldier and had an impressive career on his retirement in 1843.
His honors list indicates that he has been directly involved in combat operations in no fewer than 38 battles.
He fought in Suriname and with Napoleon in Spain, in 1815 he fought alongside King William the First at the Battle of Waterloo.
He was awarded the Military Order of William.

History tells us that the only outsider of the family was the midwife who also buried them in the crypt, she was very special or loyal to the family, her name was Zuiderwijk.

For many years, the management and care of the crypt has been in the hands of the Van der Nol family, who had a horticultural business nearby.
When the Herckenrath family came to visit the grave periodically, they collect the key at Van der Nol's family farm.

After years of good care, the grave has gradually fallen into a state of disrepair.
In the 1970s, the last descendants of Leon Herckenrath relinquished their rights to a private cemetery and burial vault on behalf of the Municipality of Monster.
Fortunately, this recognized the historical importance of this monument in time and had the crypt restored in the 1980s.
The greenhouse horticulture there in the area has disappeared and now houses have been built, see here what the former burial vault looks like now, https://goo.gl/maps/8Qzy3dewqo42
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