Civil War veteran interred with honors 97 years after his death

MEDICAL LAKE, Wash. — After 97 years, a Civil War veteran was finally laid to rest at the State Veterans Cemetery in Medical Lake.

On Friday, John Melvin Staples Sr., a sailor with the Union Navy and his wife Martha were laid to rest 97 years after his passing just three miles west of Fairchild Air Force Base at the State Veterans Cemetery in Medical Lake.

Until July 10, John’s ashes went unclaimed for 97 years and were kept in storage.

Enlisting in the U.S. Navy as a Landsman in 1862 in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, 18-year-old John was assigned to the USS Ohio for a short time before serving on the USS Colorado.

John’s assignments put him in the first naval engagement of the Civil War where the USS Colorado sunk a Confederate ship in Pensacola, Florida.

After the war, John lived in Dover, New Hampshire before settling on the Moran Prairie in Spokane where he died in 1927.

With extended family present, the U.S. Navy performed full military honors and presented the American Flag to Brenda Reid, their great-granddaughter, while honoring the Staples family as John and Martha were laid to rest.

John is only the second Civil War veteran to be interred at Medical Lake.

The Washington State Department of Veterans Affairs teamed up with the Fairmount Memorial Association, the Daughters of the American Revolution, the Sons of the America Revolution, Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War and cemetery staff worked to find, identify, and help with the interment of John and Martha.

The Washington Department of Veterans Affairs and Members of the Sons of the Union Veterans of the Civil War researched and/or contributed to this story.

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