The Staples-Tuttle-Happle Cemetery Association

08/19/2026

I took these at the Happle Cemetery this afternoon. I did not realize how dry it is until I visited the cemetery. I still miss the oak tree we had to remove.

07/22/2026

I stood in the center of the Staples Cemetery and took these pictures this morning. It is greener.

07/06/2026

I remember Max Jenkins being the farmer to have the first bale of cotton ginned most years.

06/05/2026

The Crayton Cemetery is about three miles from Staples. It is on Lehmann Road between Offermann Hill Road and Hermann Road.

The Crayton Cemetery Marker Dedication will be held June 13th 2026 at 10:30am.

05/22/2026

Memorial Day
Starting a year after the American Civil War ended, there were celebrations to honor both Union and Confederate soldiers who had died in the war. In an effort to unite the country, a national day of remembrance was established instead of separate celebrations by the Union and Confederate states. The first Decoration Day was held May 30, 1868. May 30th may have been selected for Decoration Day because flowers would have been in bloom all across the nation. The graves of those killed were decorated with flowers. At Arlington National Cemetery alone, the graves of over 20,000 Union and Confederate soldiers were decorated by 5,000 volunteers on the first Decoration Day. Decoration Day became known as Memorial Day and was expanded to include those who died in all of America’s wars. Memorial Day became a federal holiday in 1971. The last Monday in May, rather than a specific date, was designated as the day to observe Memorial Day at the time it became a federal holiday.

05/22/2026

“Decoration Day at Staples Graveyard.
Staples, Texas, May 2.—Today a goodly company of people from the community around assembled at Staples graveyard in the vicinity of Harris chapel to improve the grounds and renew and decorate the graves of their honored dead. This has been a burying ground for more than fifty years. In the absence of a well ordered allotment of blocks and spaces this cemetery, like many others, is lacking in arrangement. Yet it holds the mortal remains of a number of the oldest settlers and among them some of the presentative people of this section of the State. George Francis and wife, Pendleton Rector and wife, Frederick Happle and wife, Thomas L. Stanfield, Thomas D. James, Thomas L. Lilly, Joseph Lancaster and others of the pioneer settlers and some of their children and many of their neighbors are buried here. It is pleasant to note that their descendants who fondly cherish the memory of a noble ancestry are easily among the leading citizens of this locality. Prof. Cook’s school gave holiday and even down to the babies were there. While strong hands felled dead trees and removed small undergrowth, the deft hands of ladies with artistic skill placed blooming flowers on mounds made sacred, it may be by a thousand memories of the past. How appropriate that luxuriant white and pink roses should adorn the grave of beautiful Miss Pitman, who died so suddenly in Galveston and was buried here on that freezing day in January last. And not hers only, but others as well. At noon a spread and sumptuous dinner was enjoyed by all present.”
The Houston Daily Post (Houston, Tex.) Vol XVth Year, No. 32, Ed. 1, Saturday, May 6, 1899. — at Happle Cemetery.

05/03/2026

Thomas G. Merritt is buried in the Happle Cemetery.

05/03/2026

The Happle Cemetery this morning.

04/21/2026

04/09/2026

Staples Methodist Church Marker Dedication Planned
By Mrs. L. P. Howard
Sunday morning, Sept. 20, at 10:40 o’clock the Staples Methodist Church building marker will be dedicated.
A 4 foot red stone belfry has been erected on the church lawn. The two large pillars support the old church bell bought when the first one room frame building was erected with a tall belfry in the center _____ of the church several feet higher than the building. The church was built during the pastorate of Rev W. H. H. Biggs and Rev. Sterling Fisher. Dist. Supt. Of San Marcos Dist. Rev. C. W. Perkins, pastor, organized the church in 1902.
A grill between the two pillars has on it: “Methodist Church.”
San Marcos Record, September 4, 1953, page 15.