Amelia Anderson was the oldest child of Laurtiz (Louis) Peter Anderson and Nanna Erickson, but family members wrote that Louis Anderson was never satisfied to stay in one place very long. The family lived several places in Sanpete County before coming to Arizona, where they lived at Brigham City. After living there from February to August 1876, Father Anderson got discouraged and returned to Utah. They again lived in Sanpete County, in two places over the mountains in Castle Valley, and finally returned to Arizona in 1890. Amelia was 16 years old and was given the responsibility of driving one of the wagons, pulled by two little black mules, all the way from Utah, including up the narrow dugway at Lee's Ferry.

On November 10, 1892, 18-year-old Amelia Anderson married Bill Cross. About two years after their marriage, they left Arizona with Amelia's family. Bill Cross wrote that Father Anderson "hadn't made up his mind of two places he wanted to go. He said, 'When we approach the wagon road after leaving the ranch [in Apache County], if the mules turn to the right, we will go to Farmington, New Mexico, and if they turn to the left, we will go to Utah.' The mules turned left and we kept going."

The Cross and Anderson families settled in Circleville, Utah. The families spent six years in Circleville. "Then," Bill Cross wrote, "Father Anderson got a bee in his bonnet, and wanted to look over another hill to see what was on the other side. This time it was the Snake River country in Idaho." The two families lived in Idaho about two years and then decided to go in opposite directions: the Andersons moved to Canada and the Crosses moved back to Arizona.

When Amelia arrived in Holbrook, she "thought she had come to the end of the world . . . To her, his was a dreary looking country, the trees were crooked and ill shaped; no lawns, no flowers or anything planted, only sand." Nevertheless, Holbrook became Amelia's permanent and last home.

Note: First child, William Cross, was born prematurely on August 18, 1893 and may have lived about a month (Arizona death certificate). He is probably buried in an unmarked grave at Alpine, Apache Co., Arizona.