Behind the Legends of these Legendary
Grave Monuments
Just about anyone familiar with strange ghost tales from
cemeteries, or with stories of "haunted" cemetery artwork, has
heard a tales of cursed graveyard statues. In the state of Iowa,
perhaps the most notorious of these cursed monuments dwells in
the haunted Oakland Cemetery in Iowa City. Or Does it? That’s
the real question for our purposes here because in truth, the
stories behind two very different “black angels” in Iowa have
become mixed together over the years, creating a hodge-podge of
supernatural tales that it’s taken years to unravel.
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You see, the state of Iowa does not boast just one black angel
with mysterious ties to the unknown --- there are actually two
of them, located in two different cemeteries, in two completely
different cities!
The Black Angel of Oakland Cemetery
The statue was erected by Teresa Dolezal Feldevert, a physician
who had immigrated to America from Strmilov, Bohemia, Teresa and
her son, Eddie Dolezal, came to Iowa City, where she worked as a
midwife. They lived in Iowa City until 1891, when Eddie died of
meningitis at the age of 18. He was buried in Oakland Cemetery
and Teresa had a tree stump monument erected over his grave. It
can still be seen today.
After Eddie’s death, Teresa moved to Eugene, Oregon where she
married Nicholas Feldevert, who died tragically just a few years
later in 1911. In the wake of this loss, Teresa returned to Iowa
City and she hired Mario Korbel, a Bohemian artist in Chicago,
to design the angel that would hover over the body of her son
and the ashes of her husband. The angel arrived on a railroad
flatcar in Iowa City on November 21, 1912.
There have been many stories spread about even the most mundane
aspects of the angel’s existence, starting with the date that it
was erected in the cemetery. According to local history,
provided by people who lived in the city at the time, the angel
was installed at the cemetery at the time of its arrival in
1912. Other sources claim that it was actually stored in a barn
for six years and was not erected until after a court case that
Teresa brought against the artist, Mario Korbel. The story
states that she refused to pay the $5,000 cost of the statue
because it did not meet her specification to include a replica
of her son’s tree stump monument in the angel monument. She
eventually lost the case.
Whatever the truth of this story, at some point after the
installation of the angel, Eddie’s monument was moved from its
original location to its present site alongside the angel. His
remains, along with the ashes of Nicholas Feldevert, were placed
in a repository under the angel’s base. Teresa died of cancer on
November 18, 1924, her ashes were also placed beneath the angel
and soon after, the strange stories began.
Within a few years of its installation in Oakland Cemetery, the
glorious bronze angel strangely began to turn black. Most have
explained this as the natural oxidation of the metal but not
surprisingly, other explanations have surfaced, blaming evil
acts, freak storms, infidelity and even murder.
One legend created another and a variety of stories sprang up,
stating that any girl who was kissed at the angel’s feet in the
moonlight would die with six months. Others said that touching
the angel on Halloween night would lead to death in seven years
and, worse yet, kissing the angel itself would cause a person’s
heart to stop beating.
Others claimed the angel turned black after a freak thunderstorm
on the night of Teresa’s funeral. According to this, the angel
was struck my lightning and this is what caused it to turn
black.
There are also stories that blame the black color of the angel
on infidelity. In this version of the angel story, Teresa
allegedly vowed over her husband’s grave that she would remain
faithful to him until the day that she died –-swearing that his
death angel would turn black if she ever cheated on his memory.
The color of the angel, these stories claim, answer the question
as to whether or not Teresa remained faithful!
Perhaps the harshest explanation for the angel’s color claims
that Teresa’s son did not die from an illness, as the records
stated, but rather because she murdered him. These stories claim
that she fled to Oregon soon after and only her guilt brought
her back to Iowa City. In shame, she moved his body to rest
beneath the wings of the angel and soon after, it began to turn
back as a reminder of her shame.
And while such stories may bear little resemblance to the truth,
they do remain an essential part of the lore and legend of Iowa.
For generations, local residents and University of Iowa students
have come to Oakland Cemetery, often under the light of the
moon, to ponder the mysteries of the angel. She is regarded as
one of the region’s most haunted sites, likely based on the odd
stories, curses and enigmas attached to her past and present.
The Black Angel of Council Bluffs
Far across the state from Iowa City is Council Bluffs, a place
steeped in history. Here, at the edge of Fairview Cemetery, is
another black angel with connections to the supernatural.
Ruth Ann Dodge died in September 1916 at her home in New York
but her body was brought to Council Bluffs, where she was
buried. Soon after, her daughters, Anne Dodge and Eleanor Pusey,
commissioned Daniel Chester French to sculpt the black angel.
French is best known for the statue of Abraham Lincoln that he
created for the Lincoln Monument in Washington. The young woman
had strict criteria for French as to how the angel was supposed
to look. They wanted it to be a likeness of an angel that had
appeared to their mother during a series of visions that she had
before her death.
These supernatural “visitations” were no mere dreams. According
to Mrs. Dodge, they were realistic and overwhelming visions
about which her daughter Anne stated: “We realized this was no
dream, no ordinary occurrence, but an apparition such as
appeared to those saints of olden times, who were spiritual
seers, holy enough to penetrate the fleshly veil and view
spiritual things hidden from the worldly minded.”
Ruth described the visions to her daughters. She stated that she
did not close her eyes but was simply transported to the rocks
of a seashore that she had never seen before. She had as feeling
that she was looking and waiting for something, but she did not
know what it was. But she did know that something tremendous was
about to occur. Out of the mist, she saw an ancient boat appear
that was covered with roses and rare and fragrant flowers. As it
approached, she saw that a beautiful young woman was standing in
the bow of the ship. As soon as Ruth saw her, she knew that she
was a spiritual being and “not of this earth.”
The young woman was clad in a glistening white garment that fell
in long folds from her shoulders to her feet. Her hair, which
reached to her shoulders, looked like spun gold, forming a halo
around her head. Her eyes were bright and seemed to look at
Ruth, and yet through her, and were filled with an expression
that was beyond description.
The young woman came to her carrying a deep vessel, like a
Grecian urn, under her arm. It was filled with water that Ruth
described by saying that “it glistened, glittered and sparkled
like millions of diamonds.” The woman offered it to her and
urged her to drink from it, telling her that it contained a
blessing. But as much as Ruth craved the water, she told her
daughters, she was not ready to drink it just yet. A few moments
later, she “awoke” and the vision was gone.
Ruth had the same vision three times and on the third time, she
drank from the water that the angel offered her. A few days
later, she died. On her deathbed, she told her daughters that
the angel offered her the “wonderful water of life. I drank from
it and it gave me immortality.”
While the story of Council Bluff’s black angel is not filled
with the doom and dark portents of the angel of Iowa City, it
stands today as a the connections between one woman and the
afterlife --- between this world and the next.
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