As the early settler's children reached adulthood, they tended to marry close neighbors, often relatives, and settle near their families. Over a generation or two, a family would thus gradually spread farther and farther from the original homestead. If the original settlement was in an area that was close to county lines, a family quickly could appear in several counties. One such family is that of Edmond and Hester Gross.

Edmond Gross was born about 1792 in Virginia. He probably married his wife, Hester Brock, in Kentucky, although no marriage record has yet been located. She is believed to be of the jesse Brock family, one of the earliest family of settlers in the Kentucky mountains.

Edmond had served in the War of 1812, as is shown by the Harlan County Court certification in June of 1873 of Hetty as the widow of an 1812 pensioner. In 1885, his children sold their shares of is property located in Harlan County on the head of the right hand fork of Straight Creek, close to the then Harlan-Clay county line.

In 1878, Leslie County was created just to the north of the Edmond Gross farm. Until the greater mobility of 20th century roads and transportation, most of Edmond and Hetty's descendants could be found in Harlan and Clay Counties and after 1878, in Leslie County.

Their oldest son, Jordan B. Gross, was born about 1819. The name of the mother of his first two children is not known and she appears to have been deceased by 1850. His second wife was Nancy Mosley. According to Carlo B. Hoskins, Nancy's son and thus Jordan's stepson, Jordan studied and became a preacher under the same Jacob Burkhart whose children Drucilla and Solomon married Jordan's brother William and sister Hetty.

Hoskins relates that Jordan Gross and his teacher Jacob Burkhart "fell out" and after some quarreling Jordan and his family moved to the head of Straight Creek. There the family lived under a cliff for a few months and then moved to an area then known as Baily Fork where they lived in a new shack built for Jordan to teach a subscription school.

They moved several more times in the next few years and while living at Wallins, Jordan had been employed as one of the guards of Hezekiah Clem prior to his hanging in 1860 for the killing of Benjamin Irvin. Jordan and Nancy eventually split up and about the time of the Civil War, Jordan married for the third time, to Mary Elizabeth Long who was born about 1853, the daughter of George and Dorcas Long.

Edmond and Hester Gross appear to have next had a daughter, born between 1820 and 1825. Her identity is not known and she apparently was either dead or long gone from the Harlan area by the time Edmond's children sold their interests in the estate in 1885.

Their third child, Richard Gross, was born about 1827. The identity of his first wife is also unknown. His second wife, whom he married in 1869 in Harlan, was Mary Brock, believed to be a daughter of Aaron and Amy Ann Waldrup Brock. In 1870, Richard and Mary were living next door to James Rice and his wife Sarah Ann Howard, the daughter of William S. and Elizabeth Green Howard. Sarah Ann had first been married to a Coldiron. In 1878, Richard Gross and Sarah Ann had shed their respective spouses and married.

Edmond Gross, fourth child of Edmond and Hester, was born about 1829. He married Mahala Johnson who was born about 1837, the daughter of David and Dicey Brock Johnson. Edmond Jr., who served on the Union side in the Civil War, lived for many years in Clay County where all their children were born. By 1880, they had returned to Harlan County for a few years. By 1900 they had moved to Leslie County.

The fifth child was William Gross, born about 1835. On March 20, 1855, he married Drucilla Burkhart, daughter of Jacob and Mary Burkhart. William served for the Union in the Civil War. They raised their children in the area that was to become Leslie County in 1878.

Hester `Hetty' Gross was born about 1832. On April 2, 1848, in Harlan, she married Drucilla Burkhart's brother, Solomon. by 1878, they were living in the area that was on the Leslie County side of the newly established Harlan/Leslie line. The widowed Hetty was still living in that area in 1900.

The seventh child of Edmond and Hester Gross was John Morgan Gross, born about 1837. In 1858 he married Alcy Simpson who was born about 1834, daughter of Abraham and Delila Saylor Simpson. They had eight children: Richard, John Morgan, America, Hetty, Sabra Perlina, William, Franklin Finley and Nancy.

Morgan's brother, James B. Gross, was born about 1840. He also had three wives. His first wife, whom he married in 1869, was Nancy Brock. His second wife, in 1878, was Elizabeth Howard. His third marriage was to Margaret J. Smith, born in December of 1834, the daughter of Jonathan Smith. Margaret had first been married to Robert S. Bailey, who died at the end of the Civil War.

Next to be born, about 1843, was George Claiborn Gross. He died by February 25, 1868, when his brother-in-law, Solomon Burkhart, filed the appraisal and sale bills on George's estate: one rifle gun valued at $12; one copper still, $15; on heifer yearling, $8; and one hoe valued at $.75. George is believed to have had two daughters, Rachel and Sally Ann, perhaps by a daughter of William S. Howard.

Little is known about the next child, Sabra Perlina Gross, who was born about 1845. No deed has yet been found of her selling her share in her father's estate and perhaps she had died without issue before 1885.

The youngest son of Edmond and Hester was Abijah Gross, born about 1849. In 1867 he married Nancy, daughter of Ambrose and Eliza Ann Lankford Noe. She died sometime in the 1870's and by 1880. Abijah had remarried to Mary Jane Howard. By his first wife, Abijah had William who married Sarah Jane Lankford, George who married Polly Hall, Jack and John.

By 1910 the descendants of Edmond and Hester Gross had spread from the head of Straight Creek northeast into Clay County, northwards into Leslie County, and south to the lower section of Martins Fork and to the area around the town of Mount Pleasant, now the city of Harlan.