Nestled in a tree-shaded lot alongside Knigge Cemetery Road, between Telge Road and Huffmeister Road in Cypress, the story of two Cypress founding fathers is carved in stones—tombstones.


Within the confines of the Knigge- Telge Cemetery lay the earthly remains of J.H. Friederich Knigge and Louis Martin Telge, both patriarchs of prominent families in the early 1800s community known as Cypress. The two German farmers arrived shortly after the Texians won their freedom from Mexico in 1836.


Of the 44 known graves in the cemetery, 12 are known to be those of Telges. It is impossible to know how many of the others include Telge in-laws, or Telges whose names were changed by marriage.


The memorials to both patriarchs are among the handful of markers written in German, and both men were born in Germany—Knigge in 1821 and Telge in 1849. It was Louis Martin who donated the 20 acres on which was built the Big Cypress Schoolhouse, to be followed later by present-day Lamkin Elementary.


Louis’ son, Louis Martin Telge Jr., was born in 1879 and was the father of four children, including John E. Telge and Chester E. Telge, both of whom served on the Cy-Fair ISD school board. John died in 2001, and Chester followed in 2002. Both men are buried in Knigge-Telge Cemetery.


Today, no one named Telge lives in Cypress, but they are scattered throughout the Houston area.


"There are actually two branches of the Telge family tree that begin in Texas," said Glen Telge, 58. "My father was Elmer Telge, my grandfather was Charles Telge and my great-grandfather was William Henry Telge.”


The earliest branch of Telges began when Glen’s great-great-grandfather, Johann Wilhelm Daniel Telge—born in Fallersleben, Germany in 1828—arrived in Galveston on Sept. 30, 1846, aboard the Karl Ferdinand, Glen said. He married Johanna Warnecke, settled in the Hermann Park area and had a son, William Henry.


“There is a marker [in the cemetery] with the initials JDT, which I presume is for Johann Wilhelm Daniel Telge,” Glen said.


William Henry was brought up by Charles Weber, whom Johanna married in 1871 after Wilhelm's death in 1867. Apparently a crack shot, William Henry virtually eradicated the deer population in what is now Bellaire, Glen said.


Meanwhile, Glen said his great-great-great-grandfather Daniel followed his son to Texas, arriving in Galveston around 1850.


The Telge name exists today on a park in Cypress, a well-known road running north from Hwy. 290 to FM 2920 and a large number of businesses in and near Cypress.