VALLEY MEMORIAL GARDENS

With permission of Hidalgo County Historical Commission 2006

LOCATION: 3600 N. Taylor Road at Mile 2 North, Mission, Texas, on the city limits between McAllen and Mission, .75 mile north of Pecan Boulevard (FM 495), in the Sharyland-Palmhurst area.

HISTORY: Mission was founded in 1908 by John J. Conway and James W. Hoit, who purchased three porciones (Spanish land grants) from the Order of Mary Immaculate. The town was named for the small chapel, La Lomita (Sp. little hill), on the Oblate land.

By 1909, Mission had a bank, a drug store, and was the winter home of Presidential candidate William Jennings Bryan on Two Mile Line. In 1914, John H. Shary, developer of the citrus industry in the Rio Grande valley, began planting citrus groves in the area.

Valley Memorial Gardens, founded in 1950, consists of 40 acres in northeast Mission There is a niche mausoleum (columbarium) decorated with oil paintings, and an angel carved from a single tree trunk, Veterans Garden, and Family Estate area. Owner is Service Corporation International of Houston.