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. In the spring of 1866 a committee interested in the improvement of the cemetery met to take down the old fence and install a new one. A committee of three was also created to handle the finances of the cemetery. All monies that had been collected and information on accounts to be collected were turned over to them. (1)

The number of people interred in the graveyard was estimated by a contemporary at 3000-4000 in 1870. (2)

Reverend Loras Otting, director of archives and historical records for the ARCHDIOCESE OF DUBUQUE noted a typical day’s burial entry: (3)

        “Burials N. 13, 14, 15, 17. Nota: four persons 
         have been buried in the graveyard and no names 
         were given. They were newcomers and they died 
         by the cholera.” 

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. (4)

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. (5)

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. (6) Despite these circumstances, the burial ground continued to be used for another decade. The condition of the grounds continued to be of concern: (7)

           Ought to be Looked After--The fence around the 3rd Street Cemetery has
           been broken down, and cattle roam at large over the premises defacing
           the tombstones and destroying the shrubbery. As a matter of common
           humanity, this state of things should be remedied immediately.

The last documented interment (recorded in the city death records) occurred in 1880. (8)

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. (9)

In 1946, the property was sold to the Sinsinawa 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 re-interred 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. (10)

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. (11)

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. Poor record keeping and the removal or natural decomposition of wooden markers contributed to the likelihood of newer burials disturbing older interments, leading to stacked burials, or in some cases, the commingling of multiple individuals in one burial shaft, while the cemetery was in active use. (12) Some graves still remained on the bluff. (13)

According to Iowa Burial Law, any body 150-years-old or older is considered ancient and must be treated according to the law. A judge ruled that every potential body found in the former Third Street Cemetery be treated as ancient, so archeologists studied the remains before turning them over to Pat Leonard, a Dubuque funeral director. (14) Iowa law also dictated that the property owner was liable for the expenses of reburial. A. J. Spiegel paid for all body-recovery costs estimated at $1,000 for each of the 900 found. (15) 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. (16) 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. (17)

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Source:

1. "Grave Yard Meeting," Dubuque Herald, April 26, 1866, p. 4. Online: https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=uh8FjILnQOkC&dat=18660426&printsec=frontpage&hl=en

2. Lillie, Robin M. and Mack, Jennifer E. "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.

3. Neva Pederson, Mary. "Who Was Buried in the Third Street Cemetery on Kelly's Bluff," Sept. 15, 2009. IaGenWeb. Online: http://iagenweb.org/boards/dubuque/documents/index.cgi?read=247789

4. "Bioarchaeology and History..."

5. Ibid.

6. Oldt, Franklin T. History of Dubuque County, Iowa. 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

7. "Ought to be Looked After," Dubuque Herald, August 20, 1872, p. 4. Online: https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=uh8FjILnQOkC&dat=18720820&printsec=frontpage&hl=en

8. "Bioarchaeology and History..."

9. Ibid.

10. Ibid.

11. Ibid.

12. Humanities and Social Sciences Online : http://h-net.msu.edu/cgi-bin/logbrowse.pl?trx=vx&list=H-Iowa&month=1110&week=b&msg=UKO/FyA3CfhcU2xxaekizQ

13. Ibid.

14. Habegger, Becca. "Human Remains in Dubuque to Be Reburied," KWWL.com, Nov. 16, 2010. Online: http://www.kwwl.com/story/13516416/human-remains-in-dubuque-to-be-re-buried

15. 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/

16.Ibid.

17."Bioarchaeology and History..."