1925 Biography - T. Jones Cross

T. Jones Cross is a native son of Louisiana who has found in the capital city of the state a field for most successful professional achievement, and he is distinctly one of the representative members of the bar of Baton Rouge, where he has been engaged in active practice more than forty years.

Mr. Cross was born at Jackson, East Feliciana Parish, Louisiana, June 3, 1861, a son of Kimball Allyn Cross, who was born at Clinton, in 1837, and whose death occurred in the City of Baton Rouge June 4, 1896. Richard Cross, grandfather of the subject of this review, was born in Tennessee, and upon coming to Louisiana, about the year 1830, he first settled in De Soto Parish, where he reclaimed and developed a plantation. Later he established a general merchandise Store in East Feliciana Parish, his death having occurred at Clinton in the '40s. His wife, whose maiden name was Elizabeth McMillan, was born in Cleveland, Ohio, and as a young woman became a school teacher at Clinton, Louisiana, where her marriage occurred and where she passed the closing years of her life. The father of Richard Cross was born at Nashville, Tennessee, a member of one of the pioneer families of that city, and he became a successful planter and merchant in his native State, where he passed his entire life, his children having been seventeen in number. In connection with the family history it is interesting to record that T. Jones Cross is a descendant of the historic Indian princess, Pocahontas.

Kimball Allyn Cross was reared at Jacks Louisiana, and there was graduated from Centenary College, from which he received the degrees of both Bachelor and Master of Arts. He then prepared himself for the legal profession, and after his admission to the bar he was engaged in practice in Shreveport a few months, until the outbreak of the Civil war, when he promptly enlisted for service as a soldier of the Confederacy. He served during the entire course of the war, and after its close continued to be engaged in the practice of law at O~. ton until 1881, when he removed with his family to Baton Rouge, the capital city having thereafter continued the central stage of his professional active until his death, and he having been recognized as one of the specially able and distinguished member of the Louisiana bar. He was the author of a valuable law book, entitled "Cross on Successions," also of two other volumes which have likewise become standard publications in Louisiana Jurisprudence, namely: "Cross on Practice" and "Cross on Pleading." These works are in general use throughout the state. As a staunch advocate of the principles of the democratic party Mr. Cross was influential in political affairs in Louisiana, and served one term as a member of the State Senate besides which he represented his party and state as a presidential elector in 1876. He was affiliated with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and he and his wife hold membership in the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. In the earlier period of his residence in Baton Rouge Mr. Cross served several years as editor of the Baton Rouge Advocate, and he not only gained reputation as a virile and able writer, but also had the record of utmost precision in diction and orthography. His wife, whose maiden name was Fredonia Rosalie Perry, was born at Jackson in this state, in 1841, and her death occurred at Baton Rouge in 1917. Of the children T. Jones, immediate subject of this sketch, is the eldest; David Hardee, who was born June 1, 1864, became a member of the Baton Rouge bar, and continued in the practice of law in the Parish of Livingston and in the capital city until his death, December 3, 1917; Mary Saunders, now a resident of New Orleans, is the widow of William T. King, whose death there occurred in 1922, he having been a merchant and also having been identified with the lumber industry; Robert Perry died in infancy; and Kimball Allyn, Jr., who was born in January, 1872, died at Baton Rouge in June, 1895.

T. Jones Cross gained his earlier education in the public schools at Clinton, and thereafter he completed the studies of his sophomore year in Centenary College. He left this institution in 1879, and then began reading law under the able preceptorship of his father. He was admitted to the bar in 1882, and among those conducting his examination were Hon. E. D. White, now deceased, who had been a justice of the Supreme Court of the state and later became chief justice of the United States Superior Court, and Hon. Francis T. Nichols, a former governor of Louisiana, who later was again elected governor of the state, and also became chief justice of the Supreme Court of the state. From the time of his admission to the bar Mr. Cross has been engaged in the general practice of law in Baton Rouge, where he has long been known as a resourceful trial lawyer and well fortified counselor. His offices are at 504-5 Roumain Building, and he is senior member of the representative law firm of Cross & Moyse, individual mention of his coadjutor, Hermann N. Moyse, being made in the following sketch of this publication.

Mr. Cross believes, thinks and talks as a democrat. He served several years as city attorney of Baton Rouge, and under the administration of Gov. L. E. Hall he served as vice president of the Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College. He holds membership in the Methodist Episcopal Church South, and he is a member of the Baton Rouge Chamber or Commerce, the Baton Rouge Golf and Country Club, the East Baton Rouge Parish Bar Association, the Louisiana State Bar Association and the American Bar Association. In the Masonic fraternity Mr. Cross has the following named affiliations: St. James Lodge No. 47, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons; Washington Chapter No. 57, Royal Arch Masons; and Plains Commandery No. 11 Knights Templars. He is a director of the Bank' of Baton Rouge and is president of the Louisiana Fire Insurance Company. Mr. Cross has extensive real estate holdings in Baton Rouge, including his attractive home property at `11 St. Philip Street.

In the World war period Mr. Cross served as a member of the Military Draft Board of East Baton Rouge Parish, and was zealous and liberal in support of the government war bonds, as well as the Cross and other patriotic agencies.

September 2, 1885, recorded the marriage of Mr. Cross and Miss May A. Barr, daughter of the late Rev. D. Eglinton Barr and Cornelia (Holmes) Barr, the father having been a clergyman of the Protestant Episcopal Church. Mrs. Cross is a graduate of Reade Villa Seminary, Baton Rouge, and has long been a popular factor in the social and cultural activities of the capital city. Bolling Allyn, elder of the children of Mr. and Mrs. Cross, is engaged in the real- estate business at Baton Rouge, besides being a clerk in his father's law office. He was graduated from the University of Louisiana with the degree of Bachelor of Science. He was specially active in patriotic service in his home parish during the World war period. Cornelia Holmes, the second child, is the wife of Alfred Scott John, civil engineer for the Standard Oil Company of Louisiana, in charge of construction, with residence and headquarters in Baton Rouge.

Contributed 2021 Nov 04 by Mike Miller, from A History of Louisiana, by Henry E. Chambers, published in 1925, volume 2, pages 66-67.