THIRD STREET CEMETERY

Land behind this chain link fence was once the Third Street Cemetery.

THIRD STREET CEMETERY. An abandoned cemetery, also known as the “Kelly's Bluff Cemetery,” “The Old Catholic Cemetery,” or “St. Raphael’s Cemetery.” The site is located on the bluff between Third Street and Dodge in an area bordered by Cardiff, Third, and St. Mary Streets. The cemetery was used by the Catholic community of Dubuque from the 1830s until around 1880. The number of people interred in the graveyard was estimated by a contemporary at 3000-4000 in 1870. By the time the burial ground fell out of use, 5000-6000 may have been interred there. An incomplete funeral register from St. Raphael’s Cathedral (1839 to 1856) provides the names of almost 700 parishioners who may have been buried at Third Street. (1)

A few entries in the St. Raphael’s register indicate that people had been buried without the families paying for the lots or notifying the clergy. Some of these were recent arrivals in the city and some had died of CHOLERA. These entries, which account for only 28 of the deaths listed in the register, gave rise to exaggerated stories of surreptitious burials and cholera-related mass graves in the bluff-top cemetery. (2)

Though Bishop John Hennessy officially closed the cemetery in 1867, he re-opened it in 1868, after he obtained legal title to Outlot 723, to the west of the original cemetery lot. This western outlot had been used for burials for an unknown number of years, and officially became part of the cemetery after the death of the original owner, Thomas Kelly. Though the addition almost doubled the size of the burial ground, the newer section is not shown as part of the cemetery on any city maps. In 1870, the Third Street Cemetery became the center of controversy when the City Council leased out the mineral rights to the original lot, ignoring the outcry of the Catholic community. (3) Despite these circumstances, the burial ground continued to be used for another decade. The last documented interment (recorded in the city death records) occurred in 1880. (4)

The cemetery was not officially closed after 1880, and the Archdiocese never issued an order for the removal of the remains. Turn-of-the-century newspaper articles about the new cemetery, MOUNT OLIVET CEMETERY, mention plans to move the graves from Third Street, but there is no record that these removals ever happened. Individual families disinterred their loved ones from the bluff over time, but the majority of the graves remained. By the 1930s, though, the community believed only a few graves still existed. (5)

In 1946, the property was sold to the Sininsawa Dominicans, who built the Saint Dominic Villa to the south of the cemetery lots. Eleven or twelve graves were removed from the Third Street Cemetery at this time, and reinterred in the Third Street section of Mt. Olivet Cemetery. According to eyewitness testimony gathered during depositions for a lawsuit concerning the property, many more graves were destroyed during the creation of a lawn for the Villa around 1948. (6)

In 1959 an old graveyard marker was uncovered that was believed to have come from the cemetery. Hand-carved and made of Farley stone, the stone carried no inscription. The post weighed between 400-500 pounds and was six feet long and fourteen inches on each side. In the late 1960s, the Dominican sisters sold the portions of the cemetery property closest to Third Street. More graves were disturbed during the construction of Kelly’s Bluff Condominiums in the 1970s, and during landscaping on private property in 1994. (7)

The remaining Villa property was sold in 2002 for $1.5 million to A. J. Spiegel whose River Pointe Development LLC was planning a condominium development on the site. In 2007, after earth-moving activities, exposed human bones were discovered on the property. A team from the Office of the State Archaeologist, University of Iowa, excavated over 900 burials from the approximately one-fourth of the cemetery between 2007 and 2011. However, some graves still remained on the bluff. (8) Abiding by Iowa Law, A. J. Spiegel paid for all body-recovery costs estimated at $1,000 for each of the 900 found. (9) In September 2009, Spiegel sued Sinsinawa Dominican Inc. claiming that they did not reveal that the property they sold to him contained additional graves, his costs of relocating the remains, and the loss of use of the site. (10) The human remains were reburied in the Third Street Cemetery section of Mt. Olivet Cemetery, with the last graveside service taking place in September 2013. (11)

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Source:

1. "Bioarchaeology and History of Dubuque's Third Street Cemetery, 13DB476, Dubuque County, Iowa," Office of the State Archaeologist, Research Paper Volume 37, Number 1, 2013. Authors Robin M. Lillie and Jennifer E. Mack.

2. Ibid.

3. Oldt, Franklin T. History of Dubuque County. http://www.ebooksread.com/authors-eng/franklin-t-oldt/history-of-dubuque-county-iowa-being-a-general-survey-of-dubuque-county-histor-tdl/page-19-history-of-dubuque-county-iowa-being-a-general-survey-of-dubuque-county-histor-tdl.shtml

4. "Bioarchaeology and History..."

5. Ibid.

6. Ibid.

7. Ibid.

8. Ibid.

9. Crumb, Michael J. "Forgotten Iowa Cemetery Stops Condo Plan," Daily Reporter.com, September 22, 2009. Online: http://dailyreporter.com/2009/09/22/forgotten-iowa-cemetery-stops-condo-plan/

10.Ibid.

11."Bioarchaeology and History..."