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PATRICK ! EE DEAN
Oliver and Mary Prince on the Home:
“Mr. Prince took command of the hands at the
pump, where his self-possession and strong
strokes showed that he worked for a nobler pur
pose than fear for his own life. When exhausted
by his efforts, he joined his wife, to devote him
self to her safety. The self-sacrificing nature of
Mrs. Prince would not yield to the temptation of
clinging to her husband, when his exertions might
be necessary to the safety of others on board. She
urged him to return to his efforts at the pump.
Immeoiacely afterwardr ,she attempted to obey
the advice of the Captain, to remove from one
part of the vessel to another less exposed to the
danger.
“As she stepped out of the cabin into an open
space, a wave passed over and through the vessel,
and carried her into the ocean... Mr. Prince,
resuming his labors at the pump, was spared the
pangs of knowing the fate of his wife. To a young
man who iived to report the story, Mr. F.ince said:
'Remember me to my child, Virginia.' If there was
aught else the uproar of the ocean prevented its
being heard. No account was ever given of the
last struggle for life by those who worked at the
pump. In a great heave of the ocean, the vessel
parted asunder and went to the bottom."
The wreck of the Home was, according to Eric
Hause, “the most deadly sea disaster on American
shores at the time," and newspapers printed
numerous accounts of the tragedy and its after-
math.
“The dreadful catastrophe which befell the
ship, Mr. and Mrs. Prince, and almost all the pas-
seng* j ’s," Gov. Gilmer wrote, “made such an
impression upon the whole country that the event
is still freshly remembered by every one, whenever
tire bursting of boilers, the burning of steamers,
and the wreck of vessels are mentioned."
The Home's captain even wrote an instant
best-selling book about the catastrophe. Around
90 people died, most of them women and chil
dren. The bodies of many of the victims, including
the Princes, were never recovered.
Many obituaries for the Princes were published.
The most notable obituary was published in a
Georgia newspaper two weeks after the shipwreck.
Concerning Oliver Prince it said:
“Mr. Prince for more than twenty-five years
was a practitioner of law in this state, and though
not an eloquent speaker, was at all times inter
esting and convincing. Truth was his polar star,
and to arrive at that, he regarded not the rugged
ness of the way. He was well versed in the hidden
mysteries of this intricate science... He was safe
in counsel, and scrupulously honest in all matters
of trust and confidence. As a writer, he was spir
ited, perspicuous, and witty... “
Years later the three children of the Princes
erected a cenotaph for
their parents in Rose
Hill Cemetery in Macon.
The cenotaph is still
there, although it has
fallen over and now lies
flat on the earth, face
up. Paraphrasing from
the Bible (2 Samuel
1:23), the following
inscription has been
carved into the upper
half of the marble slab:
"OLIVER HILLHOUSE
PRINCE and MARY R.
PRINCE, who perished
in the wreck of the
steamship 'Home.' They
were lovely and pleasant in their lives and in their
death they were not divided.'" Near the bottom is
inscribed: “This tablet is erected to perpetuate
the beloved memory of our parents by their
bereaved and sorrowing children."
In an Athens newspaper article intended to
resuscitate the memory of Oliver Prince and pub
lished many years ago, John A. Cobb wrote:
“There are too many instances in our history of
achievements of men, of whose memories we
should feel proud, [who] are allowed to pass into
oblivion... "
The present article on the eponymous Mr.
Prince has been written with the same purpose as
Cobb's old article, “to revive with the livino the
memories of the dead... that the dead may not,
amid the exigencies of busy life, be entirely for
gotten." The present author will have succeeded,
therefore, if, '.tie next time you drive down Prince
Avenue, you remember something about the
almost totally forgotten Oliver Hillhouse Prince, if
you recollect, for example, that, incredibly, the
street you are on was named for the Athenian who
was plagiarised by Thomas Hardy!
Donald E. Wilkes, Jr.
Donald E. Wilkes, Jr. is Professor of Law in the
UGA School of Law.
Other Facts About Oliver Prince
• Prince strongly believed that railroads were
essential to developing Georgia's economy,
and in 1831 he presided over the slate's first
Railroad Convention, which met in Eatonton to
devise plans for bringing the railroad to
Georgia. He was one of the first stockholders
and directors of the Georgia Railroad Company.
• On August 2,1832 Prince published in the
Georgia Journal a lighthearted letter he had
written in Athens about a University of
Georgia graduation ceremony he had recently
attended.
• Prince was a trustee of the University of
Georgia, and after his death, a memorial ser
vice for him and his wife was held in the
University Chapel
• A number of Prince's letters and papers are
preserved in the Special Collections Division of
the University of Georgia Main Library.
• Prince's son, Oliver H. Prince, Jr., died in
1875 and is buried in Oconee Hill Cemetery.
His daughter Virginia died in 1905 and is
buried in Rosa Hill Cemetery in Macon.
• The house Prince built in Washington,
Georgia in 1810 and where he lived with his
wife for five years still stands at Liberty and
Pope streets. Privately owned and now known
as Poplar Grove, the magnificent white
columned house is billed in Wilkes county
tourist promotional literature as "the only full
developed Beaux-aris classical revival struc
ture in town."
• Apart from Prince Avenue here in Athens,
the only other places in Georgia named afUr
Prince are in Macon, where there is both a
Prince Street and a tiny municipal park, little
more than a grassy street median at the comer
of Poplar and Third streets, which was desig
nated Prince Park many years ago.
Unfortunately, the metal marker bearing
Prince's name has been removed from the
park, and today even the Macon parks and
recreation department is unaware of the fact
that the park is named after Prince.
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