The private Trinity Lutheran Cemetery on Klein Cemetery Road is one of the oldest cemeteries in the area, according to Klein ISD historian Steve Baird. The earliest tombstone is dated 1872, and the cemetery is an official Texas historical marker, Baird said.
In 1874, Henry Kaiser, an early German settler, donated a 1-acre plot of land, which included the burial sites of three of his descendants, to the Trinity Klein Lutheran Church. In 1875, the land was made a burial ground and has since expanded to 4 acres through land purchases, Baird said.
Unlike other graveyards in the area, the Trinity Lutheran Cemetery typically groups tombstones by date of death rather than by family, Baird said. For example, in 1911, three family members died within 13 weeks of each other. Rather than being buried together, they were buried rows apart from each other according to dates of death, he said.
“It’s kind of a family cemetery for the community,” Baird said. “[The founders] didn’t really think of themselves as individuals; they saw themselves as one big community, and that kind of [shows why the deceased] were buried in order of death rather than in family-style plots that we see today.”
The majority of the gravestones date between 1880 to the 1890s, Baird said, and most are made of marble. Baird said he is planning a potential headstone cleaning this fall, although details are not yet confirmed.
Trinity Lutheran Cemetery
Klein Cemetery Road, Spring
