David C. Cross 

Colonel
Confederate Army

     When David C. Cross came to what was to be Cross County, sometime between 1840 and 1850, he settled in Mitchell Township in Poinsett County.
    In 1852 he married Mrs. Catherine J. Duerson in Helena. In 1860 his household consisted of him, his wife and son, Wi11ian Reddick, her son Melinder, David Cross and John Cross, his half brother. According to county tax records he owned over 83,000 acres of land.
    Even though he enlisted at the beginning of the Civil War, he left active service in early 1862 because of pneumonia and poor health and returned home.
    Because of complications with Federal troops patrolling this area and transportation difficulties in getting to a county seat to conduct official business he and a delegation went to Little Rock to get a new county formed from parts of St. Francis, Poinsett and Crittenden Counties. Before they left it had been decided that the new county would be named Cross.
    By 1866 David C. Cross and his family had moved to Memphis, Tennessee. However, he made frequent trips to Arkansas and on one of his visits to Cross County in 1874, he developed pneumonia and died 21 August 1874 at the home of his friend, W .P .Wilkins. He is buried in the Wilkins family cemetery .