Reprint from the Progress Times - January 3, 2008
©Progress Times 2008 - All Rights Reserved

Hansen family spearheads effort for Laurel Hill Cemetery

It seems to be in the blood of the Hansen family. In the 1980s, an unrelenting Richard "Rich" Hansen labored to raise $35,000 to care for Mission’s public cemetery, Laurel Hill Cemetery. With the help of donations from Mission residents, he was able to get the cemetery fenced and an irrigation and sprinkler sys tem installed.

This week, Mission Parks and Recreation Department employees were busy planting trees—nine Mountain Laurel trees and one olive tree—all purchased through the fund raising efforts of Rich Hansen’s daughter, Sue Hansen, and his niece, Carolyn Burt.

But the story doesn’t end there. Sue and Carolyn have also successfully obtained a Texas Historical Landmark designation for the old city cemetery—just in time for Mis sion’s centennial celebration.

Sue was quick to point out that they could not have done it alone and others helped with the application process. Fran Isbell, a member of the Hidalgo County Historical Commission, did much of the research and wrote the historical marker application. Modene Johnson of Mission was also very helpful with the application, Sue said.

Although the historical marker designation has been approved by the Texas Histori cal Commission, the marker itself will not arrive until later this year, said Mission Histori cal Museum Director Adela Ortega.

As it turns out, the old cemetery has quite a history. The original city cemetery was established on 12 acres donated by city founder John J. Conway around 1908. The original site was on the northwest side of the intersection of the two canals at Los Ebanos Rd. and One Mile Line. But seepage from the porous canal turned the nearby cemetery into a swamp, making it unsuitable. 

As local legend has it, when it was determined that a new site was needed, Conway fired his pistol at a map on the wall; the location where the bullet struck the map became Laurel Hill Cemetery. By 1913, all the graves had been relocated to the new site.

According to research for the historical marker, the cemetery originally had separate sections for protestants and Catholics.

One of the oldest memorials in the cemetery is the headstone of Jose B. Guzman, 1800-1877, predating the founding of the cemetery.

The Hansen family mauso leum was built in 1950 by Sue and Carolyn’s pioneer grandfa ther, George Hansen. George came to the Valley about 1917 on a land excursion sponsored by John H. Shary. He moved to Mission with his family in 1918, leaving behind a dairy farm in Minnesota.

He settled first at Six Mile Line and Stewart Road and grew broom corn. Later, he planted a citrus orchard on Two Mile Line, but masonry and carpentry were his main source of livelihood.

When George’s wife, Tena Larsen Hansen (1876-1950) died, he built the family mau soleum at Laurel Hill. He was buried in the mausoleum next to his wife.

John Conway and other notable people in Mission’s history are buried in that old cemetery, including the colorful Cleo Dawson and her "Papa and "Mama" Ed and Helen Dawson. Others interred there include Charles Volz (1875-1946), who, as the story goes,  planted the first citrus grove in the Val ley—but that’s another story.