Florence Bernardin Rees

AKA:
Bernardine Rees
Birth Name:
Florence Bernardin Rees
Birth Date:
July 20, 1859
Birth Place:
Lexington, Kentucky
Death Date:
February 7, 1862
Place of Death:
Richmond, Virginia
Age:
2
Cause of Death:
Scarlet Fever
Cemetery Name:
Hollywood Cemetery
Claim to Fame:
The Odd and the Interesting
In 1862 two-year-old Bernardine died from Scarlet Fever and her grave is often found adorned with trinkets, toys, rings, flowers, and stones. But what makes Bernardine's final resting place such a tourist draw is that it is guarded by a black iron dog. How did it get there? Before the Civil War, the Richmond dog stood at a storefront of photographer Charles R. Rees (whose name is on the cemetery plot). Children loved the dog and his young niece was no exception. When his niece contracted Scarlet Fever and passed away (that area of the cemetery is loaded with plots of young children who passed in similar fashion) Charles had the statue moved to her grave as a tribute. Today the Iron Dog (aka the Black Dog) is one of the most visited gravesites in Hollywood Cemetery.

Fun Fact

On more than one occasion visitors have heard the dog growl and swear it moved if they got too close to the grave of Bernardine. Unfortunately upon our visit we did not encounter any paranormal activity.

Cemetery Information:

Final Resting Place:

Hollywood Cemetery

412 South Cherry Street

Richmond, Virginia, 23220

United States

North America

Map:

Map of Hollywood Cemetery in Richmond, Virginia
Map of Hollywood Cemetery in Richmond, Virginia

Grave Location:

Section C, Lot 1, Grave 1

Grave Location Description

The Iron Dog (aka the Black Dog) that guards the final resting place of the infant girl can be found by entering the gates of the cemetery and taking the first right over the bridge. Follow the blue line to your right up the steep hill on Confederate Avenue. Stop at the first intersection of Confederate Avenue and Cedar Avenue. Park and look to your left for the large Newfoundland standing guard over the grave of Bernardine Rees.

Grave Location GPS

37.53978263685765, -77.45502493774777

Visiting The Grave:

Photos:

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Read More About Florence Bernardin Rees:

Videos Featuring Florence Bernardin Rees:
Hollywood Cemetery - Cast Iron Dog
The Tragic Tale and Haunting Mystery of the Iron Dog Grave
Little Girl's Guard Dog
The Black Dog of Hollywood Cemetery

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Nancy Martin

popular name: Nancy Martin

date_of_death: May 25, 1857

age: 24

cause_of_death: Yellow Fever

claim_to_fame: The Odd and the Interesting

best_know_for: Silas Martin was a successful sea captain and trader. The one thing he hated about his job was missing his family for long stretches of time. So when his son John and daughter Nancy (Nance to her friends) asked to accompany their father on his next voyage he did not hesitate to add them to the crew. When they set sail in early 1857, Nance took ill about three months into the trip. Silas detoured and sailed into Cardenas, Cuba in search of medical care but it was too late - Nancy succumbed shortly upon arrival. Rather than having Nancy buried on foreign soil or buried at sea, Captain Silas was determined to return to Wilmington for a proper burial with her family. The issue was how to keep the body preserved for the voyage home. They decided on a large rum barrel as a makeshift coffin filled with liquor to preserved the body. The thought of her body sloshing around in a cask during rough seas was too much for her father and brother, so it was decided that a chair would be placed in the cask, nailed in place and Nance seated and tied into the chair to keep her secure. Rather than disturbing the remains, upon returning to Wilmington, Silas had Nance buried in the cask in the port city’s Oakdale Cemetery.

Amelia Maggia

popular name: Amelia Maggia

date_of_death: September 12, 1922

age: 25

cause_of_death: Radium sarcoma, industrial poisoning

claim_to_fame: The Odd and the Interesting

best_know_for: Amelia ‘Mollie’ Maggia was the middle child of seven Maggia sisters; listed in order of age: Louise, Clara, Albina, Mollie, Quinta, Irma and Josephine. Children of Italian immigrants, Albina, Mollie, Quinta and Irma all worked in the radium-dial factory. Mollie was an exceptional dial-painter – but paid the price. She was the first dial-painter to die in September 1922. The initial effects of radium seemed harmless, and the substance was popular amongst the younger girls in the factory. They would go home from a day of painting with their clothes glowing from the radium exposure. Some would even paint the buttons on their dresses or their nails, but the joy of the radium glow was short lived. Long-term radiation sickness symptoms soon became present among many of the women who worked with radium paint. Common issues included bone cancer, anemia, lesions, and sores. These problems were exhibited in Amelia Maggia, the first dial painter to die from radiation sickness. Amelia worked in the factory for almost a decade and was known to be a diligent employee. Amelia had initially gone to the doctor complaining of a toothache and got an extraction. However, the ache in her jaw continued. During a routine exam, when the doctor gently probed here jaw, her jawbone literally fell out of her mouth into his hands. Upon closer examination he found extensive deterioration of her lower jaw bone and tissue damage from the radiation. Most of her jaw was removed and she developed severe anemia and lesions with massive infections. Amelia passed away in September of 1922 at the age of 25 when the radiation caused a jugular vein to rupture and she bled to death in front of her family. Her death was wrongly attributed to syphilis.

W W Pool

popular name: W W Pool

date_of_death: February 26, 1922

age: 79

cause_of_death: Pneumonia

claim_to_fame: The Odd and the Interesting

best_know_for: William Pool was a well respected account manager and bookkeeper for the wealthy and influential Bryan estate. His wife died in 1913 with William passing away several years later. They are entombed at Hollywood Cemetery and you would think that would be the end of the story. Years later local residents claim that the mausoleum of W. W. Pool (dated 1913) in Hollywood Cemetery holds the remains of a vampire with the rumor that Pool was run out of England in the 1800s for being a blood-sucking creature of the night. The legend may have been influenced by the architecture of the tomb, which has both Masonic and ancient Egyptian elements, and the "WW" over the entry to the crypt looking like fangs. At the same time another version of events began on October 2, 1925, when a disastrous cave-in at the Church Hill Tunnel occurred, with tons of rock and soil crashing down on a work train, killing, trapping and wounding several laborers. Shortly after the catastrophe, eyewitnesses saw a horrific creature running from the tunnel’s end – with fanglike teeth and rolls of decomposing flesh hanging from its body. The creature is said to have sprinted into Richmond’s Hollywood Cemetery and disappeared into the mausoleum of W.W. Pool where today the iron doors remain sealed to prevent the creature from escaping.

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