Born in 1879 as Eliza Dawkins.  Eliza worked on the Peterson Farm (now Jefferson Patterson Park and Museum) as a house keeper for much of her life, with her mother, Jane Dawkins Johnson, and her siblings.  She met her husband, Everett Gross Jr., who had grown up on a nearby farm. They were married and Eliza became the first known member of her family to move and live off of the farm property in 1897.  Together at Mackall Cove, where Eliza and Everett owned their land and home, they had 18 children and stayed until their final days.