My 4th great grandfather, Thomas Cross, was born in Ipswich, Massachusetts, and was baptized there on December 20, 1741. He was raised in the village of Bradford (present-day Haverhill) by his mother and father, Thomas Cross and and Sarah Bordman.
He married Lucy Hovey, daughter of Joseph Hovey and Rebecca Stickney, in Bradford, Massachusetts, in November of 1767. Beginning the following year, they began their large family, which numbered 10 children by the time they moved to Gorham, Maine.
Thomas farmed land which was part of Captain Phinney's first settlement in Gorham, and kept a store adjacent to the homestead. Besides farming and running his store, Thomas was appointed a deacon of the First Parish Church in the village, and continued in that capacity until his death. He was also a member of Gorham's Committee to Hire Soldiers during the Revolutionary War, and, as such, is a DAR Patriot (A028166).
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| McLellan, Hugh Davis, History of Gorham, Maine (Smith & Sale, 1903), p. 173. |
All of the Cross sons settled in Portland, Maine, and two of their daughters found husbands there.
Their eldest son, Joseph, married Betsey Duston. They are buried in Eastern Cemetery, Portland, as are sons Thomas, Leonard and Amos Hovey. Leonard and Amos Hovey were part of Captain A.W. Atherton's Company, Lieutenant Colonel Martin Nichols' Regiment of the Massachusetts Militia (District of Maine), which was raised in Portland during the War of 1812.
Daughter Betsey married Captain Jonathan Stevens. They are buried in Pine Grove Cemetery in present-day Falmouth, Maine.
Daughter Sally married Captain Enoch Preble. One of their sons was Real Admiral George Henry Preble of the U.S. Navy, fondly known as "The Father of the American Flag." The Prebles were originally interred in Eastern Cemetery, Portland, but, as space required, and as the attraction of Evergreen Cemetery (on Stevens Avenue) grew, their remains were moved and reinterred in Evergreen.
Daughter Lucy married James Phinney (1741-1834) of Gorham. They are both buried in Eastern Cemetery in Gorham.
Daughter Lois, my 3rd great grandmother, married Allison Libby III, and they are both buried in North Street Cemetery, in Gorham.
Son William married Eliza Stevens, and was a sea captain. In a sad twist of fate, he passed away on the day before his father died, and, as McLellan writes in his History of Gorham, "father and son were borne to the grave on the same hearse."
Thus were my 4th great grandfather, Thomas Cross, and my 3rd great grand uncle laid to rest in Gorham Cemetery:
Inscription
Here lies
Deac. Thomas Cross
born in Ipswich,
Ms. Nov. 18, 1741.
died Feb. 15, 1819;
having been a Deac. of this
Church 15 years.
Also in the same grave his son,
Capt. William Cross;
born Aug. 21, 1779,
died Feb. 14, 1819.
Remaining verse:
No passing mortals and surviving friends
Regard....eloquence of death
Who more than...angelic tongue
My 4th great grandmother, Lucy Hovey Cross, lived two more years, and is buried beside her husband, and with her two daughters, Rebekah (age 19) and Harriet (age 8).
Inscription
Here lies
Mrs. Lucy Cross
wife of Deac. Thomas Cross
born at Boxford, Ms. Mar. 16,
1748. Died May 21, 1821.
By her side lie their children
Rebekah Cross,
born Jan. 20, 1774,
died Apl. 11, 1794.
And Harriet Cross,
born Oct. 20, 1790,
died Mar. 14, 1798
***
Postscript: From 1978 to 1980, I was the Town Librarian in Gorham, Maine. I attended services and taught Sunday School at First Parish Church, and walked past the Gorham Cemetery on South Street every day on my way to work. Little did I know at the time that my 4th great grandparents were resting just over the wall...
Sources:
Ancestry.com. Maine, Death Records, 1617-1922 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2010.
Ancestry.com. Massachusetts, Town and Vital Records, 1620-1988 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2011.
Daniel Hovey Association, The Hovey book, describing the English ancestry and American descendants of Daniel Hovey of Ipswich, Massachusetts, 1914.
Daughters of the American Revolution. "GRC National Index." Database. DAR Library. (http://services.dar.org/Public/DAR_Research/search_adb/default.cfm)
Deac. Thomas Cross and William Cross tombstone, Gorham Cemetery, Gorham (Cumberland County), Maine; photographed by Pamela Schaffner on 5 July 2012.
Find A Grave, database and images (http://findagrave.com : accessed 16 Feb 2016), memorial page for Joseph Cross (1768-1819), Find A Grave Memorial no. 101640076, citing Eastern Cemetery, Portland, Cumberland County, Maine.
Find A Grave, database and images (http://findagrave.com : accessed 16 Feb 2016), memorial page for Betsey Cross (unknown-1829), Find A Grave Memorial no. 101640062, citing Eastern Cemetery, Portland, Cumberland County, Maine.
Find A Grave, database
and images (http://findagrave.com : accessed 16
Feb 2016), memorial page for Thomas Cross (1769-1833), Find A Grave Memorial no.
101640086, citing Eastern Cemetery, Portland,
Cumberland County, Maine.
Find A Grave, database
and images (http://findagrave.com : accessed 16
Feb 2016), memorial page for Betsey Stevens (1772-1838), Find A Grave Memorial
no. 99202084, citing Pine Grove Cemetery, Falmouth,
Cumberland County, Maine.
Find A Grave, database
and images (http://findagrave.com : accessed 16
Feb 2016), memorial page for Sally Cross Preble (unknown-1848), Find A Grave
Memorial no. 99202084, citing Evergreen
Cemetery, Portland, Cumberland County, Maine.
Find A Grave, database
and images (http://findagrave.com : accessed 16
Feb 2016), memorial page for Lucy Phinney (unknown-1863), Find A Grave Memorial
no. 119022309, citing Eastern Cemetery, Gorham,
Cumberland County, Maine.
Find A Grave, database
and images (http://findagrave.com : accessed 16
Feb 2016), memorial page for Lois Cross Libby (1784-1860), Find A Grave
Memorial no. 117092715, citing North
Street Cemetery, Gorham, Cumberland County, Maine.
Find A Grave, database
and images (http://findagrave.com : accessed 16
Feb 2016), memorial page for Leonard Cross (unknown-1867), Find A Grave
Memorial no. 101640079, citing Eastern
Cemetery, Portland, Cumberland County, Maine.
Find A Grave, database
and images (http://findagrave.com : accessed 16
Feb 2016), memorial page for Amos Hovey Cross (1788-1842), Find A Grave
Memorial no. 101640061, citing Eastern
Cemetery, Portland, Cumberland County, Maine.
Fulk, Dori, comp.. Bradford Massachusetts Vital Records to 1850 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2000.
"George Henry Preble," (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Henry_Preble).
Lois Libby tombstone, North Street Cemetery, Gorham (Cumberland
County), Maine; photographed by Pamela
Schaffner on 7 August 2013.
McLellan, Hugh Davis, History of Gorham, Maine (Smith & Sale, 1903).
Mrs. Lucy Cross, Rebekah Cross, and Harriet Cross tombstone, Gorham Cemetery, Gorham (Cumberland County), Maine; photographed by Pamela Schaffner on 5 July 2012.
Pierce, Josiah, A history of the town of Gorham, Maine (Portland, Maine, Foster & Cushing, 1862).
Preble, George Henry, Genealogical sketch of the first three generations of Prebles in America, with an account of Abraham Preble the emigrant, their common ancestor, and of his grandson Brigadier General Jedediah Preble, and his descendants (D. Clapp and Sons, 1868).
Records of the Massachusetts volunteer militia called out by the governor of Massachusetts to suppress a threatened invasion during the war of 1812-14. Published by Brig. Genl. Gardner W. Pearson, the adjutant general of Massachusetts, under a resolve of the General court, (1913), p. 241 : accessed 16 Feb 2016. Private Leonard Cross and Private Amos Hovey Cross in Captain A.W. Atherton's Company, Lieutenant Colonel Martin Nichols' Regiment. Massachusetts Militia; District of Maine. On April 16, 1814. Raised at Portland; digital images, www.hathitrust.org (http://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/009833259).