Civil War veteran and family finally buried after decades of no ashes collected

July 26 – The ashes of a Civil War veteran and his wife were not collected in Spokane for 100 years.

On Friday, John and Martha Staples were laid to rest at the Washington State Veterans Cemetery near Medical Lake.

“It's not every day that we welcome a Civil War veteran into our home,” said Dan Murray, director of operations for the Washington State Department of Veterans Affairs' veterans homes. “It is a great honor to be here to pay my final respects to one of our state's first veterans and his wife and to recognize their service and sacrifice.”

Staples is the second Civil War veteran to be buried in this cemetery.

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

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

Brenda Reid, the Staples' great-granddaughter, said John Staples was a tailor and Martha Staples took care of the household. They also did a little farming to make ends meet.

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

For some reason, her ashes went unclaimed until a man named Rick Valentine intervened.

For nearly a decade, Valentine's mission has been to reunite people with the unclaimed remains of their loved ones. It began in 2015 when Valentine was contacted by a woman looking for a buried veteran in Spokane.

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

Fairmount gave Valentine a list of unclaimed ash remains, which at the time numbered 824.

He began posting the names on Find a Grave, a gravesite collection website, so people might be able to find someone they couldn't find before.

In 2016, Valentine discovered another veteran in Fairmount whose death he had no say in and submitted the information so he could be buried in Medical Lake Cemetery.

Valentine thought that if he could find two veterans with no claim to a name, then surely there must be more.

He searched through the hundreds of unclaimed ashes on the Fairmount list, looking for veterans. In 2017, he finally found the ashes of John and Martha Staples. He also discovered the remains of the couple's three daughters, also unclaimed and stored in Fairmount's mausoleum.

The three women died in the 1960s. One of them was a member of the Daughters of the American Revolution, who tracked down a Staples descendant, Reid, in Spokane. The three women were buried Friday afternoon at St. Joseph Cemetery in Spokane Valley, where the women's brother is also buried. The fifth sibling is buried in California.

Valentine said he learned that John Staples was a Civil War veteran and submitted information to the veterans cemetery to obtain approval for his burial there. VA officials twice asked Valentine to provide more information about Staples before receiving approval for his burial at the cemetery.

He said the COVID-19 pandemic had also significantly slowed the seven-year process.

“COVID has really brought everything to a standstill,” Valentine said.

Valentine gathered more paperwork and information about the couple and submitted the information in April. On July 5, he was notified that the couple's burial at the cemetery was approved. The couple's ashes were placed on a table in the Veterans Cemetery's burial room on Friday. They were then transferred to a columbarium.

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

Valentine, who lives in the Mead area, said he is not affiliated with any group or organization that handles veterans' ashes. He managed to get 51 unclaimed veterans and their family members, including the Staples couple, buried at the veterans cemetery. Valentine arranged for the other Civil War veteran to be buried in Medical Lake.

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

Valentine said he felt like he had almost become a member of the Staples family.

“I've been working on burying John and Martha for seven years,” he said. “It started seven years ago. So for me it's almost a closure.”

He said there was a history of military service in his family.

His uncle had died in World War II, but his ashes were not recovered and brought home until 1950, which in part sparked his interest in this unique mission.

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

Reid said she was shocked when she received a call asking if she wanted to claim the ashes of the three women. She decided to claim them.

“I can’t imagine someone sitting in a camp for that long without having a place to rest,” she said.

Reid said Valentine then told her about her great-grandparents. She didn't know many details about the five family members.

She said her great-grandparents left her a legacy she never knew about and she is glad it is coming back to her. She said she is proud to be the granddaughter of a Civil War veteran and of the legacy her family has left behind.

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

About 20 Staples descendants attended the memorial service Friday morning.

The service concluded with the firing of muskets by three members of the Sons of the American Revolution, the folding of an American flag for Reid by two US Navy sailors, and the playing of tattoos.

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

The Staples family traveled from across the state and country to attend this unique tribute and then traveled to St. Joseph Cemetery on Friday afternoon for the burial of the remaining family members.

“It's like a whole new line of a family tree,” Reid said of the family members in attendance who she had never met.

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

“I didn't think it would come to this because they've been gone for so long,” Reid said.