Notes |
1930 United States Federal Census
Name: John Cross
Gender: Male
Birth Year: abt 1907
Birthplace: United States
[United States of America]
Race: White
Home in 1930: Attalla, Etowah, Alabama
Marital Status: Married
Relation to Head of House: Head
Spouse's Name: Loraine Cross
Father's Birthplace: United States
Mother's Birthplace: United States
Household Members:
Name Age
John Cross 23
Loraine Cross 22
Betty Cross [11/12]
1940 United States Federal Census
Name: John H Crass
Respondent: Yes
Age: 33
Estimated Birth Year: abt 1907
Gender: Male
Race: White
Birthplace: Tennessee
Marital Status: Married
Relation to Head of House: Head
Home in 1940: Pine Flat N, Dallas, Alabama
View Map
Street: Hy 80
House Number: 219
Inferred Residence in 1935: Pine Flat N, Dallas, Alabama
Residence in 1935: Same House, Dallas, Alabama
Sheet Number: 14B
Number of Household in Order of Visitation: 219
Neighbors: View others on page
Household Members:
Name Age
John H Crass 33 (John Noil Cross)
Margarett L Crass 33 (Margaret Lorraine Cross)
Bettis L Crass 10 (Betty Cross)
Babbis N Crass 4 (Bobby Cross)
Maygrt Tayler 28 (?)
Last Residence: 36701, Selma, Dallas Co., AL
John Noil was my favorite uncle on my father's side of the family. He
was funny and always full of energy. He worked for the Selma Police
Dept. most of his life. My favorite photograph of him was made
probably in the early thirties. He is standing beside his old jalopy
(probably a Ford) with his badge on and his pistol, in its holster,
strapped to his hip. I called him the Law of Dallas County.
When he was in his late eighties he called me on the phone one night.
I hadn't heard from him in years. He just wanted to see how I was
doing, he said. Dinkey, his wife, had been dead for a while so he
was living alone in his own home. He told me that he was still
independent but that Betty, his daughter, came over to check on him
now and then. A few days back, he said, he was up on his roof
straightening his TV antenae when Betty drove up to check on him. He
hid behind the antenae so she wouldn't see that he was on the roof
because she would read him the "riot act". We both had a great laugh.
He was still like a little boy doing whatever he wanted and avoiding
being caught.
In the 60s Uncle John participated in the "March to Selma" led by Dr.
Martin Luther King, Jr. He was a mounted policeman, at the time, and
very proud of it. Dr. King with his followers led everyone over the
Edmund Pettus Bridge, which my grandfather John Philbert Cross, and
his sons, including my father, had participated in building. The
bridge opened in 1940 just three years following my birth.
When I was 18 months to 3 years, my father, mother and I lived in
Selma. When the rains came, the Alabama River would flood it's banks.
The house we lived in was built on stilts so that the flood waters
could run under the house. After a flood, water moccasins and other
water snakes were everywhere. Needless to say, I was not allowed out
of the house.
Also, following floods, my father and others from the area would have
to go to the cemeteries and rebury the caskets and bodies because the
floods would soften the earth so much that they would float up to the
top of the ground. It eventually became a law that concrete covers
had to be placed over all caskets so that this would continue to
occur.
Selma was essentially an arsenal during the Civil War. There were
many battles there. When I was a child I remember seeing cannon ball
damage to the pillars of the old Courthouse.
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