In 1871, Helen Emma Peck, was born in East Tennessee. The eighth child of Dr. Isham Talbot Peck and wife Emma Elizabeth (Henderson) Peck, and only the second girl, she was very much loved. Her family owned a beautiful mountain home in Wolf Creek on land they called Glen Ada, named after her older sister who died from cholera at the age of five. As she grew older, she would take her books up on the mountain, across from Glen Ada, and read them there. Sitting high on the mountain, she could look out across Eastern Tennesee, and even view the mountains of Western North Carolina. She could also look below and watch the beautiful, curving French Broad River as it flowed through the mountain bluffs.

In 1887, at the age of 15, Isham and Emma sent Helen off to the Salem Female Academy in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. During her first semester there, Helen became seriously ill. Her parents came to her side and stayed with her for two weeks until she died. They carried her body back to East Tennessee and she is buried there. After arriving home, her father, Isham, erected a large white cross on the same mountain where she enjoyed reading her books. The cross stood for nearly 100 years in Helen's memory, and became known as the easily seen marker identifying the boundary between Tennessee and North Carolina. Over time, the memorial cross became synonymous with the mountain itself, and map surveyors eventually named it "Cross Mountain." Cross Mountain Books is a testament to Helen's love of reading, and a father's devotion to his daughter.