An Appalachian Family

Walter Eugene Prince, Sr., was born in Anderson County, South Carolina, in 1886.  His family, which was of Scottish/Irish origin, had immigrated to Pennsylvania during the potato famine.  They subsequently migrated to the Appalachians, where they lived as farmers for generations.  Walter had a 7th grade education and probably worked on the family farm early in his life.  However, the railroad was his calling and he got a job as a brakeman with the Southern Railroad Company.  When a new line was built from Spartanburg to Kentucky, he saw an opportunity and applied for a position as a conductor with the new railroad.  He got the job and worked as a conductor until he retired at the age of 70.  He was a gruff, but loving father.  His job kept him away from home a lot. 

Mary Hunter Palmer was also from Anderson County.  One of her ancestors was Edward Hyde, who came over from Ireland and was the minister of a presbyterian church in Anderson County prior to the revolutionary war.  His statue still stands in front of the church today.  Mary graduated from the two year college in Asheville, North Carolina.  She wanted all of her children to go to college.  She worked as a telephone operator with Southern Bell. She was a very loving, caring, and wonderful lady.  She was stern when she had to be, which occasionally happened with six children.

 

Walter and Mary were married around 1916 and Hugh Palmer Prince was born two years later.  Philip Hunter Prince was born in Bostic, North Carolina on August 4,1926, and the family soon moved to Erwin, Tennessee.  He was the youngest son, and grew up in the midst of the Great Depression.  His family would recollect that before he was born they would travel to Florida and other places in the family car, a Buick Touring Car.  After he was born, the car was up on blocks.  There would be no trips during the Depression.  In fact, they would play in the car pretending to be John Dillinger.  Walter had a large garden in their backyard and leased 1-2 acres to farm in order to grow enough food to make it through the depression.  The whole family helped work the land.  

 

There was a CCC (Civilian Conservation Corps) encampment near Erwin, and they built a facility called Rock Creek Park.  One can’t help but be reminded of the public works programs instituted by FDR during the Depression and the real things that came out of it that still stand today.  

 

In 1939, Palmer decided to join the Navy.  He would be stationed in Norfolk. Philip looked up to his brother, seeing him make the decision to join the military at a time that there were already rumblings of war.  The year he graduated from high school, 1944, he actually took the train to Norfolk to visit his brother and saw the ocean for the first time.  He saw his first aircraft carrier and was impressed that man could build something so huge.  He didn’t get to see Palmer, who had just departed on the USS Hyman. He would never see him again.