It actually began with her grandfather, Ezra Cross, who had given the land on which the present First Baptist Church of Tims Creek stands. It was his dream that one of his own progeny would stand before the altar as His, and his, minister. So it was a familial, dynastic hope for the both of them. What better gift to the Lord than your begotten son? How fitting. How Godlike. How worthy. And for the sons of slaves and of former slaves, what more did they have to give? Ezra had twelve children, yet only six survived—which was not a great deal in those days. People needed as many hands and backs to work in the fields as they could get. He had somehow amassed over one hundred acres of land, exactly how no one is truly certain. If you ask one person he’ll tell you old Grandpap was given the land by his former master; if you ask another he’ll tell you he went away and worked and saved and returned and purchased it; yet another will say he stole, killed, and cheated for it. But however he came about it, in around 1875 he had title to more land than most former slaves dreamed of having and he needed all the sons he could get to manage it. There was Thomas, the oldest; Paul Henry, who in turn had nine girls; Louis, who in turn had two sons; and Frank, who was killed before he and his wife could have children. Then there was Bertha and Elma, who both married, Bertha to a man over in Muddy Creek and Elma to an insurance salesman who moved to Virginia.

So it was Thomas, the oldest, who worked the biggest part of the farm. Paul Henry worked another piece Ezra had over the river, and Louis and his sons worked a piece that Ezra and Thomas bought in the 1880s from old Widow Phelps who had no sons. But it was in Thomas that Ezra put his faith and hope, selecting the spot for the new family home and moving in with Thomas’s family when his wife died at forty-eight. Yet Thomas was not as fruitful as either of them would have hoped, producing Ezekiel, the oldest; Jonnie Mae, my grandmother; Jethro; Zelia; and Agnes. Both Zelia and Agnes married and moved away. So before his death, Thomas split the land he had inherited between Zeke, Jonnie Mae, and Jethro. Zeke, being the oldest, was favored with the largest piece, as his father had been; Jonnie Mae received the next largest piece, for she was her father’s favorite; and Jethro was given a respectable-sized farm, with the admonition to help his brother and sister and conquer any jealousy he might harbor.