Encyclopedia Dubuque
"Encyclopedia Dubuque is the online authority for all things Dubuque, written by the people who know the city best.”
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Affiliated with the Local History Network of the State Historical Society of Iowa, and the Iowa Museum Association.
THIRD STREET CEMETERY
THIRD STREET CEMETERY. Abandoned cemetery. Also known as the "Kelly's Bluff Cemetery," the site was located on the bluff between Third Street and Dodge in an area bordered by Cardiff, Third, and St. Mary STREETS. Between 1839 and 1856, records of the archdiocese indicated that 819 people were buried in the cemetery, but the records were suspect.
The dead were mostly poor Irish, German, French, and Czech immigrants. Some of the graves displayed ancient Irish traditional burial practice. The head faced the west and the feet to the east so that the dead would be ready to arise from their graves facing the sunrise on judgment day. During the CHOLERA epidemic, some parents buried their dead quickly without telling the priest. In other cases, newcomers to the city died and were buried before their names were known.
By 1856 the Third Street Cemetery was filled with cholera victims, the same year that the Key West Burial Ground, MOUNT OLIVET CEMETERY, was opened. The Third Street Cemetery was closed in 1867 and all the known graves were moved to Mount Olivet.
Hints that not all the bodies had been moved began in 2007 when a man and his dog discovered a human bone. In September 2009, developer A.J. Spiegel sued a group of Dominican religious sisters claiming that they did not reveal that the property they sold to him contained hundred of additional bodies. In 2005 Spiegel's Royal Oaks Development paid $1.5 million for the former St. Dominic Villa so that a condominium development could be started. Initial construction was stopped when between 600-700 burials with human body parts were discovered by archaeologists between 2007 and 2008.
In November 2010, workers continued to uncover human remains from the site. By that time, an estimated nine hundred more burials had been discovered than had been previously known. Pat Leonard, superintendent of Mount Olivet Catholic Cemetery, was supervising the reburials at Mount Olivet. A. J. Spiegel paid for all body-recovery costs estimated at $1,000 for each of the 900 found.
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Source:
"Bodies on top of Bodies," Mary Nevans Pederson, Nov. 16, 2010