Mount Olivet Cemetery (Dubuque)

Coordinates: 42°26′56″N 90°41′02″W / 42.449°N 90.684°W / 42.449; -90.684

Mount Olivet Cemetery, Dubuque, Iowa.

St. Joseph's Chapel Mausoleum. In addition to traditional mausoleum crypts, it also has a number of columbarium niches for cremated remains.

Mount Olivet Cemetery is a Catholic cemetery located at 10378 Military Road in Key West, Iowa approximately 4 mi (6.4 km) south of Dubuque. It is one of the two large Catholic cemeteries located in the Dubuque area. The cemetery is located near Saint Joseph's Catholic Church in Key West, but is operated independently.

The cemetery offers in-ground burial, as well as columbarium and mausoleum entombment.

History

The cemetery began in 1856 and was known as the Key West Burying Ground. In 1901, the Mt. Olivet Cemetery Association was formed and the cemetery was renamed Mount Olivet. One of the first tasks the board of 11 trustees undertook was to relocate graves from the Third Street Cemetery, was adjacent to St Raphael's Cathedral, to Mt. Olivet. Although the Third Street Cemetery was declared closed in the 1870s and remains moved, several graves were discovered in 2007 when the property was being redeveloped. In November 2010, authorities announced that many of the graves would be moved to Mt. Olivet.^[1]

The board then hired O. C. Simonds to improve the cemetery grounds. Simmonds, who was the superintendent of Graceland Cemetery in Chicago, Illinois and was widely recognized as a landscape gardener, set about to improve the cemetery which was inaccessible to those not on-foot.^[2]

Former Dubuque Archbishops James Keane and John Keane are both buried in the cemetery.^[3] While the men shared the same last name, they were not related. Kenneth Mott, owned a Dubuque music store, was buried at the cemetery following his death in an airplane accident with a marker shaped like a Grand Piano.

St Joseph's Chapel Mausoleum is located at the northwest corner of the cemetery. The mausoleum was built in 1989, and was later expanded.^[3] This building has crypts for mausoleum entombment, columbarium niches for cremated remains and a small chapel for the final committal ceremonies.

References

1. ^ Becca Habegger (16 November 2010). "Human Remains in Dubuque to be re-buried". kwwl.com. http://www.kwwl.com/story/13516416/human-remains-in-dubuque-to-be-re-buried?redirected=true. Retrieved 2011-04-26. 
2. ^ "Mount Olivet Cemetery". EncyclopediaDubuque.org. http://www.encyclopediadubuque.org/index.php?title=MOUNT_OLIVET_CEMETERY. Retrieved 2011-04-26. 
3. ^ ^{a b} A Guide to Catholic Dubuque. Archdiocese of Dubuque. 2010. http://www.arch.pvt.k12.ia.us/CatholicDubuqueGuide/GuidetoCatholicDubuqueBrochure.pdf. Retrieved 2011-04-26.