In the 18th century, John Cross was a tenant farmer on Robert Carter, Jr.'s Piney Ridge land grant. His son Benjamin Cross, a slave owner and War of 1812 veteran, bought 550 acres from Carter heirs in 1835. The farm produced Indian corn, wheat, apples, peaches, and honey. In 1869, five acres of the land were sold to Charles Brooks, an emancipated slave. Benjamin Franklin Cross inherited a portion of the farm and built a house here ca. 1871 that later burned. His son, Albert Judkins Cross, built the current farmhouse ca. 1905, where descendants lived until 1959.