About 1995 I was going through some of Mother's old photographs and I found a picture of Sude Edgman wrestling with an alligator as a young man. I mailed this picture to Victor Edgman his son who lives in Knoxville, Tennessee. I expected to have an answer but never did hear from him. Bill Kirk, Victor's brother-in-law in Chattanooga told me that he knew Victor got the picture and that Victor would be writing and thanking me for it. I was angry with Victor for never writing, but in time that wore away.

On August 13, 2000 I went to the Edgemon Reunion at Ten Mile, Tennessee. Shortly after arriving I was standing looking over the crowd for a familiar face, and thinking of the members of my family who used to attend but are now dead. My mother Lucy Eula Edgemon-Henson was one of the family who got the reunion started back in the 1920s.

All of a sudden my attention was drawn to a man and his wife approaching the pavilion. He saw me looking at him and nodded in return. I eased my way around to where they were and said, "You must excuse me for staring, but I thought you were Bob Hope the actor." He laughed and said that many people had told him that he looked like Mr. Hope.

We exchanged names and to my surprise and joy it was Mr. and Ms. Victor Edgman of Knoxville. We chatted and I said, "The last time I saw you was in 1936. It was early in the morning on Christmas Day and my grandfather Huse Edgemon had taken me to Rossville, Georgia to visit your father for some unknown reason. Unknown to me. Your parents, the P. Sude Edgman family, lived in the house that later became the Lane Funeral Home in Rossville. (It was a two story brick house, but in remodeling it the Lanes removed the top story). Victor and Alma, the children, were just coming down stairs to play with their newly opened toys. It was ten times more toys that I ever got in a lifetime. The house had electricity and was heated with gas and was very pleasantly warm on this cold day. Back at home we sat before a fireplace, burning on the front and freezing on the back so that we continually turned as a spitted roast of beef. A kerosene lamp was all we had for light. I was sure that you children had found Heaven right here on Earth."

Victor said that he had gotten the photograph of his father wrestling with the alligator, that I had sent, but had lost my address and so could not answer. I accepted the rather feeble excuse. A caption on the back of the photo identified Sude and said that it was taken at an alligator farm in Florida. Victor said that the photo was not taken in Florida, but on an island off the Georgia coast. He said there was an interesting story connected with the photo.

His father, Sude, was in the First World War. He and a friend named Wall were shipped to France together. They were in a small town for awhile and both men fell in love with two French girls. They were not allowed to marry over there, but had to return to the States, be mustered out of service, and then send for the girls and be married in the USA. They got home and started saving up money to send for the girls and to buy a house after the wedding.

The day finally came and they sent steamship tickets to the girls. When they arrived the two Chattanooga boys went to New York to meet the ship. The girls were aboard and they all went to a hotel. The girls were in a room with twin beds and the boys in another room with twin beds. According to Victor a house in Chattanooga could be bought for $600.00, and that was the amount that each boy had saved up. When they went to bed, Sude lay staring into the darkness at the ceiling. Wall asked, "What are you thinking about Edgman?" Victor said, "What are you thinking?" "Well, I think we have made a mistake bringing those girls over here." That was exactly what Sude was thinking, too.

The next morning they met the girls down in the dinning room for breakfast. During the meal the girls seemed to have heavy thoughts on their mind. When the boys asked into the problem the girls said that they felt as though they were making a mistake in leaving their home and marrying. What a relief. The ship did not return to Europe for another five days, so the two couples spent the time seeing the sights in the Big Apple. After buying the tickets for the girls return to France, the extra hotel and meals there was not too much of their $600.00 left, so they went to an island off the coast of Georgia for a vacation and that is when the picture that I sent to Victor was made.

I asked Victor what his Mother, Beulah Mallicoat, thought of the story after she and Sude were married. He said that strange as it may seem the Edgman family kept writing to the girl until the German troops over-ran France in the Second World War, and then they never heard from her again.

Victor Edgman said that his grandfather Pleasant Edgeman spelled his name with the "e" but when he owned a store in Chattanooga he was having his name painted on the side of their delivery wagon. It was soon discovered that there was not enough room for the entire last name down the side of the wagon so he had the name shortened to Edgman by leaving out the "e".

His lineage back is Victor Edgman; P. Sude Edgman; Pleasant Edgeman; Allen Edgemon; Braxton Edgemon; William Edgemon, Jr.; William Edgemon, Sr..

Submitted by J W Henson

I am webmaster of this site, contact me with questions/comments, Judy Tate

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