‘They deserve a proper burial’: Civil War veteran, family finally laid to rest after cremains went unclaimed for decades

The cremains of a Civil War veteran and his wife went unclaimed for 100 years in Spokane.

On Friday, John and Martha Staples were interred in their final resting place at the Washington State Veterans Cemetery near Medical Lake.

“It’s not every day that we intern a veteran from the Civil War,” said Dan Murray, operations director for the Washington State Department of Veterans Affairs veterans homes. “It’s truly my honor to be here as we pay tribute to one of our state’s earliest veterans and his spouse and recognize their service and sacrifice.”

Staples is the second Civil War veteran to be interred at the cemetery.

Staples was 18 when he enlisted in the Union Navy in 1862. He was assigned to the USS Colorado before he was discharged in 1863.

The Staples couple, originally from Maine, and their five children moved to the Moran Prairie on Spokane’s South Hill many years after the war.

Brenda Reid, the Staples‘ great-granddaughter, said John Staples was a tailor by trade and Martha Staples took care of the home. They farmed a bit as well to make ends meet.

Martha Staples died in 1922 at the age of 77 and her husband followed in 1927 at the age of 82.

Somehow, their ashes went unclaimed until a man named Rick Valentine stepped in.

For nearly a decade, Valentine’s mission has been connecting people to the unclaimed remains of their loved ones. It started in 2015 when a woman contacted Valentine looking for a buried veteran in Spokane.

Valentine found him unclaimed in the basement of Fairmount Memorial Park. The veteran was then buried at the Medical Lake Veterans Cemetery.

Fairmount provided Valentine with a list of its unclaimed cremains, which was 824 at the time.

He started putting the names on Find a Grave, a gravesite collection website, so people might find someone they couldn’t find before.

Valentine discovered another unclaimed veteran in 2016 at Fairmount and turned in relevant information for him to be laid to rest at the Medical Lake cemetery.

Valentine said he figured if he found two unclaimed veterans, there was bound to be more.

He researched the hundreds of unclaimed cremains on the Fairmount list looking for veterans. He eventually found the cremains of John and Martha Staples in 2017. He also discovered the remains of the couple’s three daughters which were also unclaimed in storage at Fairmount’s mausoleum.

The three women died in the 1960s. One of them was a member of the Daughters of the American Revolution, which tracked down one of the Staples’ descendants, Reid, in Spokane. The three women were laid to rest Friday afternoon at St. Joseph Cemetery in Spokane Valley where the women’s brother is buried. The fifth sibling is buried in California.

Valentine said he learned John Staples was a Civil War veteran and submitted information to the Veterans Cemetery for authorization to be interred there. VA officials asked Valentine twice to submit more information about Staples before he was authorized to be laid to rest at the cemetery.

He said the COVID-19 pandemic significantly slowed the seven-year process as well.

“COVID really put a halt to everything,” Valentine said.

Valentine gathered more records and information on the couple and submitted the details in April. He was notified July 5 that the couple was approved to be interred at the cemetery. The couple’s cremains were placed Friday on a table inside the committal shelter at the Veterans Cemetery. They were then moved to a columbarium.

“It is through the tireless efforts of Rick Valentine, who’s with us today, and the support of the team of professionals at Fairmount Memorial and our federal partners that today’s internment service is even possible,” Veterans Cemetery Director Rudy Lopez said at Friday’s service.

Valentine, who lives in the Mead area, said he’s not affiliated with any group or organization that works to claim veterans’ ashes. He’s managed to get 51 unclaimed veterans and their family members, including the Staples couple, laid to rest at the Veterans Cemetery. Valentine did the leg work to get the other Civil War veteran interred in Medical Lake.

“I’ve laid 49 unclaimed veterans to rest and none of them have ever had a story like this, ever,” he said.

Valentine said he feels he’s almost become a member of the Staples family.

“I’ve been working on getting John and Martha buried for seven years,” he said. “This started seven years ago. So, it’s almost closure for me.”

He said his family has a history of military service.

His uncle was killed in World War II, but his ashes weren’t recovered and brought home until 1950, which partly sparked his interest in this unique mission.

“All of these guys served,” Valentine said. “They deserve a proper burial.”

Reid said she was shocked when she got a call asking if she wanted to claim the three women’s cremains. She decided to claim them.

“I can’t imagine somebody sitting in storage for that long and not having a place to be at rest,” she said.

Reid said Valentine then told her about her great-grandparents. She did not know many details about the five family members.

She said her great-grandparents left a legacy she didn’t know about and is glad it’s coming back to her. She said she’s proud to be the granddaughter of a Civil War veteran and of the legacy her family left.

“It’s interesting how quickly we can lose sight of our past generations,” Reid said.

About 20 Staples descendants attended Friday morning’s committal service.

The service was complete with three Sons of the American Revolution members firing muskets, two U.S. Navy sailors folding an American flag for Reid and the playing of taps.

“Today, we have the unique privilege of paying final respect to a sailor who answered our nation’s call 162 years ago,” Lopez said.

The Staples family traveled from around the state and country to take in the unique tribute. They then traveled to St. Joseph Cemetery Friday afternoon to lay the remaining members of the family to rest.

“It’s like a whole new line of a family tree,” Reid said about the attending family members she never met.

Reid said she was overwhelmed at the respect shown by veterans and others Friday. It was an emotional morning, she said.

“I didn’t think it was going to be because they’ve been gone for so long,” Reid said.