I am typing a series of articles that my mother (Edna Liggin) wrote on James Edmunds in the fall of 1962. I will post portions of them to the list as a number of people are researching Edmunds (Edmonds) and related families. Maradee Liggin Cryer James Edmunds: the Man and the Legend By Edna Liggin A few miles east of Shiloh the terrain of the land erupts into sharp convolutions of hills as high as any to be found in the area. At present the highway runs through these in sharp curves. On one side is a historic spot called Sutton’s hill; on the other is the carefully cultivated ranch of Mr. C.T. Salley. In the lowest place is a little stream called Edmund’s creek. Beginning at the top of the hill on which stands today the Salley Barn and going as the crow flies northeast toward and over to Patrick church lies the land upon which tred James Edmunds one hundred years ago. James Edmunds was without doubt a man who did travel the miles. Many old documents at Farmerville courthouse bear his signature. Many times was his land bought and sold; and deeded to his children. His land was in the building of the first roads in the area. Indeed what man who did not have a grown son but six daughters would have time to sit still? As records attest to the unceasing activity of the real man; the tales that have passed on to his descendants make of James Edmunds a legend of a pioneer not to be forgotten. Yet withal there is much both real and imagined that is not known of him. When did he die? Who were his wives? Did he actually have a fortune in gold buried? In spite of the land he once owned he died with scarcely any. As he did not have a son to live and marry and carry on his name none of his multitude of descendants in this area living today bear the name of Edmunds. The old Anglo-Saxon chronicles tell of several English kings who bore the name of Edmund and it finally became synonmus with the dukedom of Kent. so suggestively English is the name that the tradition that James Edmund’s father came from England to Georgia is probably true. As James Edmunds was not the only Edmund to come from Georgia to North Louisiana (close members of his family of is generation came before and after him) the name Edmunds is still to be found among their descendants today. Some of these other Edmunds settled at shiloh others are in Claiborne parish near Lisbon. There was Martha, James Edmunds’ sister who was the wife of Dr. John R. Clark who lived at Shiloh before the Civil War; while his brother John Edmunds settled in Claiborne parish. The widow and son of another brother Roscoe Edmunds also came to Shiloh before the War. Family tradition says James Edmunds made the exodus from Georgia with family in the gold rush year of 1849; traveling by covered wagon and camping along the way in Indian villages; even eating with them. It was a slow tedious journey no doubt; that one man made with his family of a wife and daughters and two small sons. As the early Shiloh church records list among its black members one Willie belonging to James Edmunds; he can be assumed to have come with him. Known as Willie Edmunds he is said to have lived to the ripe old age of 114. however, contrary to tradition James Edmunds was in Union parish before 1840. In December of 1847 he bought 370 acres of land from Phillip May for $400. Two year before Phillip May had bought this land when Sheriff James Seale, the Union Parish sheriff had held a sale of it at the Farmerville courthouse. Phillip May had paid $250 for it. When Phillip May died in 1849 he was recorded as having in his estate 1000 acres of land lying between Cornie and D”Arbonne so the 370 James Edmunds bought from him may have been close to this one thousand acres. It was James Edmunds first land bought in the State of Louisiana.