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This cemetery, one of the last reminders of the community of Staples, is the burial place of many members of the historically African American community in the area. Efforts to establish a freedmen colony began shortly after the Civil War, however, the plan fell through. In 1871, landowner John Douglas Staples opened a store and a community developed known as Staples Store. By 1878, Emancipation Day celebrations began in the area. In 1905, Q.J. and Mellie Lowman and R.P. and Nunnie Lowman sold two acres to trustees for Methodist Protestant Church trustees Mintus Martindale, Mose Gray and Jim Walker, for worship and burial purposes. The land became the site of Pleasant Hope Church and the Pleasant Hope Memorial Cemetery. When the land was conveyed, it contained the grave of Merritt Anderson (c. 1837-1895). The Reverend Jim Walker served as the first pastor of Pleasant Hope. A school, called the Word School after local landowner David Alexander Word, operated on the site until around 1947. The Staples community dwindled in the 1940s. The church closed and was torn down after Jessie Lewis (1880-1959), the last African American in Staples, died.
The cemetery is the final resting place of many of the African American residents of the Staples community. There is a large number of unmarked graves. At least two of the three original trustees for the Methodist Protestant Church are buried here. The cemetery includes four veteran burials, three of which have military markers. Two markers bear masonic symbols. Longtime resident Marvin Merriweather Sr. looked after the cemetery until his death in 2006. Larry Harris (1957-2005) was the last known burial in the cemetery. A fence was erected in 1963. An association was later formed to protect this beloved burial ground.
HISTORIC TEXAS CEMETERY – 2022
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