Monday, October 22, 2012

The haunting part 4

So you keep coming back for more?  

Iowa City, located just south of us, is the home of the Black Angel.  During one of our midnight runs during college, the group of us went down to see her.  Of course I'll get to the legend in a moment, but our trip had it's own little spook along. 

Seems as we are wandering the cemetary, getting each other scared, up in the distance we all saw a light move across the cemetary.  Then a wooshing sound.  Disappeared only to reappear closer to us.  The light goes, then the sound.  By the third pass, I was ready to leave. 

It was a guy riding his bike along the paths in the cememtary--amazing what your mind will do to you!

So the legend of the Black Angel.

Located in Oakland Cemetary, Iowa City, the story of the Black Angel dates back to the late 19th entury when Teresa Feldevert traveled to Iowa City from an area that is now known as the Czech Republic and Slovakia. Her first marriage produced her son, Edward Dolezal, who died in Iowa City in 1891. Teresa had the bronze angel statue made in Chicago by Czech-American sculptor Mario Korbel and transported to Iowa City to be placed in the cemetery in 1913. Her second husband, Nicholas Feldevert’s ashes were placed in a repository at the base of the statue. When Teresa died in 1924, her ashes were placed beside her husband’s. Though the monument displays Teresa’s birthdate, there is no sign of her deathdate. Over the years the bronze statue oxidized, acquiring a greenish-black patina.

It is said that if one touches or kisses the statue they will be struck dead, unless that person is a virgin. It is also rumored that if a pregnant woman walks beneath the statue’s stretched wings that she will miscarry.

Next, mansions and an interesting place to eat, or two....

Later gators....
C

1 comment:

Peter B. said...

I think cemetery "Angels" are fairly common. Muscatine has a "Blue Angel" in the Greenwood Cemetery there. It has the usual portents of ill for those that harass it.