Cross

Unfortunately, I do not have a whole lot of information about the Cross family. Most of what I have was passed down from my grandmother, Evelyn Himel Cross (French), whose father was Edward Wallace Cross. I've had a few researchers fill in some gaps. Please, feel free to share yours.

As far as I know, John Cross, The Immigrant, was born about 1642 in England.  According to family history, the Crosses were supporters of Oliver Cromwell against the Crown. With the restoration of King Charles II in 1660, they were expatriated and transported to the Colony of Virginia before 1666.  In 1667 John Cross was granted eight hundred acres of land at the head of Mill Creek, a tributary of the Nansemond River in Nansemond County Va. This is the southern part of the county, near the North Carolina boundary and the town of Somerton.

John married about 1670. His son, Henry was born about 1677. Undoubtedly there were other children of whom we are unaware.  This John Cross died about 1702.

John Cross was on the list of twenty persons for whose transportation Thomas Mason was granted 1000 acres in Upper Parish of Nansemond County under Royal Government Book 6, p. 193.
"To all wherever and whoever, know ye that I, the said Will Desheloy, Knt. give and grant unto John Cross, eight hundred acres of land in Nansemond County, at the head of a creek called Mill Creek, which falls off into the southern branch of the Nansemond River: beginning ..."

(from The Cross Family of Virginia, North Carolina and Alabama, by William C. Cross, 1994)

John Cross', grandson also was John Cross. On Aug. 15, 1737, John Cross was issued a patent to 257 acres on the south side of Somerton Swamp. He died sometime between 1760, when he is mentioned in the Vestry book of the Upper Parish of Nansemond County, Virginia, (also listed as paying taxes in Hertford County 1768 and 1769) and the 1783 census, when his wife Susannah is listed as head of the family.

1786 State Census, Gates County, NC
Cross, Abel (wm 21-60)
Cross Cyprean
Cross, David
Cross, Hardy

US Census, 1790, Gates County , NC
Cross, Abel (3 males over 16, 8 females, 19 slaves
Cross, Cyprean (1 male of 16, 3 under 16, 5 females, 10 slaves
Cross, David (1 male over 16, 1 under 16, 2 females, 5 slaves)
Cross, Hardy (VA) 6 slaves

Another researcher shared that Jonathan Cross, son of John Cross,  possibly was born about 1744 in Nansemond County, Virginia (it was on the border with Gates County, North Carolina). He may be the Jonathan Cross who was an Ensign in the Nansemond Militia in 1778 during the Revolutionary War. (Sources: “Virginia Military Records” and “Historical Register of Virginians in the Revolution, ” both online at Ancestry.com).  His son Edward Cross was born to Jonathan and Sally Cross in Nansemond County on April 14, 1780. (Source: a leaf from Edward’s family Bible (original in Edward’s War of 1812 pension file.)

There also was a Richard Cross who may have been a captain on a British ship during the battle against the Spanish Armada.

My grandmother also spent a lot of time searching for a Cross who reportedly fought in the American Revolution.

My fourth great-grandfather was Elisha Cross, born 1758 in Gates County, North Carolina. He married Priscilla Bethea. Among their sons was Benjamin Cross (my great, great, great grandfather), born 1789 in Gates County, North Carolina.

Benjamin Cross came to Lafourche Parish, Louisiana in the early 1800s and began amassing property. He bought property from Pierre Benoit on 4 March, 1829, on the left bank of Bayou Lafourche, two  miles from Thibodaux (20 arpents from to  1 1/2 arpents wide).  The U.S. Government sold to Benjamin on 13 June, 1837, #188 original (C of B No. Q, page 63, Receivers Office So. East District, New Orleans). He also bought property from John Miller.  The Thibodaux court house shows many acts of sale to Benjamin, which he formed into Orange Grove Plantation.  It eventually encompassed 2,900 arpents, four miles from Thibodaux, 1 1/2 arpents front Bayou Lafourche, the rest in the rear. (I have not been able to pinpoint the exact location of Orange Grove because there were several plantations by that name.It may have been located on Highway 20, between Thibodaux and Chackbay, which would put it about three miles from Abby Plantation -- see below.)

There is an Orange Grove mentioned in an account of the Thibodaux Massacre of 1887, and a Judge Beattie. That name does not appear in our family tree. There also was an Orange Grove Plantation in Gibson. There still is an Orange Grove Apartment complex located in Thibodaux. There was another Orange Grove located near Lockport.

Benjamin married Anastasia Bourgeois (b. 1804) in 1823 in Lafourche Parish. Their children were Priscilla, William Wallace, Mary Eliza, Alice, Amanda Malvina, Benjamin F., Edward, James, John Whitman (or Whitmel), Josephine, Marie Louisa and Richard T. Cross. Benjamin died in 1855 and had himself buried on the Orange Grove property.  Benjamin was, reportedly, not a nice man and treated his slaves horribly. After his death, his former slaves were so terrified of him, they refused to cut the grass around the tomb.  When the property was sold, the tomb had to be dismantled with dynamite.  His body was moved in 1870 to the Perkins tomb at St. John's Episcopal Cemetery in Thibodaux. The estate sold for $179,000, including the plantation slaves.

William Wallace Cross, born May 27, 1841, at Orange Grove Plantation, was my great-great grandfather. He was a huge man, nearly 7 feet tall. His tomb, located at the Episcopal Cemetery in Thibodaux, sticks out a good foot or more longer than the others. He received his Doctorate of Medicine on March 19, 1862 from the New Orleans School of Medicine (now Tulane). (His framed doctorate is in my possession.) He was a physician in Thibodaux. He served in the Civil War as Assistant Surgeon, 30th La. Regiment.  Commissioned Nov. 13, 1862/ Captured at Meridien, Mississippi, 12 May, 1865. ((Parole papers in my possession)).

From the military rolls:
Assistant Surgeon, F. and S., 30th Regiment, La. Infantry. Enlisted Nov. 13, 1862, New Orleans, LA. Appointed surgeon Nov. 10, 1862 (sic).  Roll for March and April, 1864, Absent with leave.  Roll for Nov. 1, 1864 to Feb. 28, 1865, Absent with leave of 20 days from Feb 19, 1865 to Feb ..., 1865 (sic).  Appointed Asst. Surgeon by Maj. Gen. Maury.  Present on Roll for April 20 to 30, 1865.  On Rolls of Prisoners of War as Assit. Surgeon, 20th La. Infantry.  Paroled at Meridian, Miss. May 12, 1865.

His brother Whitmel Cross

William married Mary Abigail Billiu of Abby Plantation on February 18, 1867, at Abby Plantation. Witnesses to the wedding of Mary Abbie Billiu and Wallace W. Cross (sic): Louise Cross, Louise Winder, R.R. McBride, Taylor Beattie, T.J. Shaffer. SRB Trader, Rector, St. John Episcopal Church, Thibodaux, LA.  Abigail died, aged 72, of pneumonia.  Family legend said she stepped in a puddle getting out of a carriage on her way to church.  She refused to go home to change her wet shoes and stocking and became ill. She was a Shakespearean scholar.  Her collection of books is in my possession. Abby Plantation is now Abby Plantation Estates, an upscale subdivision in Thibodaux.

Mary Abigail Billiu

Only three of William and Abigail's five children survived to adulthood -- Sidney Billiu Cross, Carrie McNair Cross and Edward Wallace Cross, my great-grandfather.

Edward was manager of Waverly Plantation, owned by the Howell and Perkins families.  He was a student of agriculture at LSU.  In 1903, there was a Crevasse  -- a break in the bayou levee -- at Waverly Plantation.

From local reports: "About 4:30 a.m., March 22, a break occurred in the levee on the right bank of Bayou Lafourche, about 3 miles above Thibodaux, in front of the Waverly plantation, and soon widened to 200 or 250 feet. The water from this crevasse flooded several plantations along the bayou front, and flowed out through the swamps of Chacahoula, Gibson, Bayou Boeuf, and Berwick Bay. Considerable damage resulted, but private protection levees had been thrown up and these prevented the water from reaching several plantations which would otherwise have suffered. The main line of the Southern Pacific Railway is built on an embankment which acted as a protection to the territory to the south of this break. The towns of Gibson, Donner, Pugh, Labadieville, and Tallien were flooded. This crevasse was closed in April."

Of course this was a huge event in the small town of Thibodaux. Lena Josephine Himel, of Himelaya Plantation in Labadieville, was visiting the Rogers family at the time and went to see the crevasse. There, she met Edward Wallace Cross. They were married Feb. 18, 1867.
Notes from my grandmother, Evelyn Himel Cross French, the only child of Edward and Lena: He was born in Thibodaux and lived on Abby Plantation as a boy.  He was noted for his strength and his ability to swim.  He was a lover of sports.  His favorite was the rooster fight.  He was very good looking, had brown hair and was fair.  His eyes were gray. He had rosy cheeks.  He was a good mixer.  He had such a strong hand grip that no one wanted to shake his hand twice, but the look in his eye and the strength in his hand made everyone feel they were the very one he wanted to meet.  He worked as an overseer and manager of a rice plantation.  Later, he worked for John Deere Company.

His father had died when he was very young, and he and his mother, with the other children, moved to Abby Plantation.  He and his sisters and brothers attended the plantation school donated to the parish by their uncle, Marion. Edward also sold automobiles for a time.  He was in a race from New Orleans to Baton Rouge.  He also was in auto races on a track in New Orleans in 1911.

He contracted Bright's Disease -- a form of kidney trouble -- and sought cures throughout the south. He visited the baths at Hot Springs (Arkansas) and other places with cure-all springs, all to no avail. He encouraged Lena to go into nursing because of his ill health and the wonderful care he had received from nurses. That gave her the courage to pursue her career in defiance of her family.

Lena and Edward had but one child, Evelyn Himel Cross, born July 16, 1906, in New Orleans, but spent a good deal of time at Himelaya Plantation in Labadieville, which was owned by her grandfather, Oscar.  After the death of her father, Lena was forced to go to work as a single mother and Evelyn was sent to live with Lena's sister Cora Himel Aycock, and their cousins, Doris and Faye.

As a youngster, she was friends with and may have dated the young Mealey Mothe (of the still existing Mothe Funeral Homes), but always claimed she broke up with him because she couldn't handle dating the undertaker's son.

In her early school days, she was a border student at the Convent School in Franklin (I have not determined which school she went to). During her high school years, she lived in Algiers and rode the ferry every day to attend Sophie B. Wright High School in Uptown New Orleans.

She would marry Martin Behrman French of Algiers on July 6, 1926.

She started to work in the old state Capitol in Baton Rouge for the Department of Revenue. She was very active in Inter-civic Club Council in Baton Rouge and served as their secretary for many years. During WW II, she was a plane-spotter on weekends from atop the Capitol Building.  She was very active in the Civil Air Patrol in Houma and also of the Civil Defense Movement, attending many classes and training programs.

In the 1940s, Martin moved to Morgan City-Thibodaux-Houma area. Evelyn moved to Houma in about 1951. She worked for the Louisiana Driver's License Office and later, the Louisiana Employment Office. She was an active member of the Business and Professional Women's Club and was once their Woman of the Year.  She also was an active member of the Krewe of Hyacinthians Carnival Club in Houma, the Red Cross, the American Cancer Society, the Chamber of Commerce.

Evelyn was a modern woman before her time, active in women's rights and politics. She also volunteered much of her time to the Red Cross and the Cancer Society.

A talented ukelele player, she also entertained the "old folks" at the area nursing homes -- well into her own 80s. At Sophie Wright, she had been a member of the Terrible Tooters musical group, and she pursued her love of music all her life.

Very proud of her heritage, Evelyn spent much of her free time trying to trace her family tree, especially the Himels.  She left me much information on the Himel Family and their plantation home, Himelaya, and in fact is responsible for my quest in the world of genealogy.

Evelyn Himel Cross French

Through the Cross family, I also have a tenuous connection to the legendary Sam Houston. Benjamin Cross also had a son named Richard T. Cross. He married Louisa Josephine Buford and had a daughter named Laura Cross (my first cousin, thrice removed).  Laura would marry Temple Lea Houston, the son of Sam Houston. They lived near Fort Elliott, which protected the border against American Indians, as well as the important cattle drives. The couple had seven children, only four of whom lived past infancy.[3]

Laura Cross Houston