Klein, Harris County
A number of German immigrants settled in this area in the 1840s. The community first called Big Cypress was later renamed in honor of pioneer settler Adam Klein. Trinity Lutheran Cemetery serves as a reflection of the German heritage of this part of Harris County. A diphtheria epidemic in 1872 took the lives of three children of the Klein community. Mr. and Mrs. Henry Kaiser buried their two-year-old son beneath an oak tree on their farm. Soon after, children of the Adam Klein and Conrad Krimmel families also succumbed to the disease and were buried next to the Kaiser child. The small cemetery became a community burial ground in 1875 when the Kaiser family deeded the one-acre plot to Trinity Lutheran Church. Subsequent land acquisitions have increased the size of the cemetery to 4.5 acres. The oldest gravestone standing in the cemetery dates to 1879. Among the pioneers buried here are five charter members of Trinity Lutheran Church: Adam Klein, sr. (1826-1891); Henry Kaiser (1825-1892); Heinrich Bernshausen (1822-1892); Johannes Brill (1833-1905); and Jacob Theiss (1826-1912). Many of the tombstones bear German inscriptions.