Mount Olivet Cemetery is a Catholic

Catholic

The word catholic comes from the Greek phrase , meaning "on the whole," "according to the whole" or "in general", and is a combination of the Greek words meaning "about" and meaning "whole"...

 cemetery located at 10378 Military Road in Key West

Key West, Iowa

Key West is an unincorporated community in Dubuque County, Iowa, United States, near the extreme southern end of the city of Dubuque. Parts of the community are now within the city of Dubuque, while others are unincorporated. Owing to the presence of U.S. Highways 151, 61, and 52, and the nearby...

, Iowa

Iowa

Iowa is a state located in the Midwestern United States, an area often referred to as the "American Heartland". It derives its name from the Ioway people, one of the many American Indian tribes that occupied the state at the time of European exploration. Iowa was a part of the French colony of New...

 approximately 4 mi (6.4 km) south of Dubuque

Dubuque, Iowa

Dubuque is a city in and the county seat of Dubuque County, Iowa, United States, located along the Mississippi River. In 2010 its population was 57,637, making it the ninth-largest city in the state and the county's population was 93,653....

. It is one of the two large Catholic cemeteries located in the Dubuque area. The cemetery is located near Saint Joseph's Catholic Church

Saint Joseph's Catholic Church (Key West)

Saint Joseph's Catholic Church is a Roman Catholic parish located south of Dubuque, Iowa in the community of Key West, Iowa. The parish is part of the Archdiocese of Dubuque....

 in Key West, but is operated independently.

The cemetery offers in-ground burial, as well as columbarium

Columbarium

A columbarium is a place for the respectful and usually public storage of cinerary urns . The term comes from the Latin columba and originally referred to compartmentalized housing for doves and pigeons .The Columbarium of Pomponius Hylas is a particularly fine ancient Roman example, rich in...

 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

St. Raphael's Cathedral (Dubuque)

Saint Raphael's is the Catholic cathedral parish for the Archdiocese of Dubuque, in Iowa. The parish is the oldest church of any Christian denomination in the state of Iowa. It is part of the Cathedral Historic District on the National Register of Historic Places.-The first years:The 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.

The board then hired O. C. Simonds

Ossian Cole Simonds

Ossian Cole Simonds , often known as O. C. Simonds, was an American landscape designer. He preferred the term 'landscape gardener' to that of 'landscape architect'.-Career:...

 to improve the cemetery grounds. Simmonds, who was the superintendent of Graceland Cemetery

Graceland Cemetery

Graceland Cemetery is a large Victorian era cemetery located in the north side community area of Uptown, in the city of Chicago, Illinois, USA. Established in 1860, its main entrance is at the intersection of Clark Street and Irving Park Road...

 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.

Former Dubuque Archbishops James Keane

James Keane (Archbishop)

- External links :...

 and John Keane

John Joseph Keane

John Joseph Keane was an American Roman Catholic archbishop in the late 19th and early 20th century.-Early Life & Ministry:...

 are both buried in the cemetery. 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

Mausoleum

A mausoleum is an external free-standing building constructed as a monument enclosing the interment space or burial chamber of a deceased person or persons. A monument without the interment is a cenotaph. A mausoleum may be considered a type of tomb or the tomb may be considered to be within the...

 is located at the northwest corner of the cemetery. The mausoleum was built in 1989, and was later expanded. This building has crypts for mausoleum entombment, columbarium niches for cremated

Cremation

Cremation is the process of reducing bodies to basic chemical compounds such as gasses and bone fragments. This is accomplished through high-temperature burning, vaporization and oxidation....

remains and a small chapel for the final committal ceremonies.