Oliver Hillhouse Prince (July 31, 1782October 9, 1837) was an editor, attorney and politician, elected as

United States Senator The United States Senate is the upper chamber of the United States Congress, with the House of Representatives being the lower chamber. Together they compose the national bicameral legislature of the United States. The composition and powe ...

by the

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States Georgia may also refer to: Places Historical states and entities * Related to the ...

state legislature in 1828. Born in Connecticut, he had migrated as a child with his parents to Georgia, where he grew up. After working as a journalist and attorney, he was elected to the state senate. He prepared ''A Digest of the Laws of the State of Georgia'' (1822), for 30 years the most important collection of the state's laws. In 1830 Prince left the law to become editor of the ''Georgia Journal,'' returning to early work in journalism. With his multi-faceted career, he was describe as "one of the brilliant figures of Georgia in the first half of the nineteenth century". He and his wife died on October 9, 1837, in the wreck of the ''

SS Home SS ''Home'' was a steam packet ship built in 1836 and wrecked in 1837 during Racer's Storm with a loss of 90 lives. She was commanded by Captain Carleton White. History ''Home'' was built for Mr. James P. Allaire, of New York City, a paddle ...

,'' grounded near

Ocracoke Inlet Ocracoke Inlet ()
, from the North Carolina Collection's website at the

North Carolina North Carolina () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States. The state is the 28th largest and 9th-most populous of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, Georgia and ...

, during Racer's Storm. This was the first hurricane recorded as attacking both the Gulf and Atlantic coasts.

Early life, education and marriage

Born in

Montville, Connecticut Montville is a town in New London County, Connecticut in the United States. The population was 18,387 at the 2020 census. The villages of Chesterfield, Mohegan, Oakdale, and Uncasville are located within the town; the latter two have their own ...

in 1787, Oliver Hillhouse Prince completed his first studies locally. In 1796 he moved with his parents to Georgia, where they settled in

Washington Washington commonly refers to: * Washington (state), United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A metonym for the federal government of the United States ** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered o ...

, Wilkes County. His mother's Hillhouse family included ancestors who were judges and her brother

James Hillhouse James Hillhouse (October 20, 1754 – December 29, 1832) was an American lawyer, real estate developer, and politician from New Haven, Connecticut. He represented the state in both chambers of the US Congress. From February to March 1801, Hill ...

was a US Senator. Oliver's maternal uncle David Hillhouse had already settled in the state when his parents moved there.''Men of Mark in Georgia''
Volume 2, edited by William J. Northen, John Temple Graves, Georgia: A. B. Caldwell, 1910/1974 reprint Prince later engaged in newspaper work as an assistant editor for ''The Monitor,'' a Wilkes County newspaper, from 1803 to 1806. Tradition has it that Prince wrote many humorous articles as a young man during this period. But in files of the Monitor, there are no humorous articles attributed to Prince. In fact, nowhere in the surviving issues of the paper is there any other item that might fairly be described as a "humorous sketch." However, he was described by 20th-century historians as "remarkably gifted with the literary instinct which he possessed with the most delicious sense of humor." At the same time, he "read the law." At age 19 in 1806, he gained admission to the bar by special act of the legislature, as he was under age. He began his practice in Macon. In 1817 Prince married Mary Ross Norman of

Lincoln County, Georgia Lincoln County is a county located in the east central portion of the U.S. state of Georgia. As of the 2020 census, the population was 7,690. The county seat is Lincolnton. The county was created on February 20, 1796. Lincoln County is includ ...

, who was eighteen,Donald E. Wilkes Jr., "The Eponymous Mr. Prince, Parts 1 and 2"
''Popular Media,'' Paper 35, Digital Commons, University of Georgia Law (2000), accessed 19 November 2014 a typical age of marriage for young Georgia women. Their first two children died young in 1822, and they moved to newly established

Bibb County, Georgia Bibb County is located in the U.S. state of Georgia. As of the 2020 census, its population was 157,346. Bibb County is geographically located in the Central Georgia (Middle Georgia) region, and is the largest county in the Macon metropolitan ar ...

. They had three more children: Virginia (b. 1825), another daughter and son Oliver H. Prince, Jr.

Legal and political career

Prince became active in politics as an adult. As an attorney, he traveled around Georgia's Northern Circuit for 16 years with circuit judges for court sessions in log cabins and other makeshift sites throughout the state. His work helped him establish a broad network. In 1819 he was commissioned by the state legislature to compile a digest of Georgia law. After two years of research and work, he produced ''A Digest of the Laws of the State of Georgia'' (1822). It quickly was put into use and is considered a classic, filled with notes, a list of repealed statutes and a valuable discussion of ''

habeas corpus ''Habeas corpus'' (; from Medieval Latin, ) is a recourse in law through which a person can report an unlawful detention or imprisonment to a court and request that the court order the custodian of the person, usually a prison official, t ...

''. A second and larger edition was published in 1837 after his death. His work was considered a landmark achievement. It was the "most important collection of Georgia laws until 1851," when Thomas R.R. Cobb published a new compilation. In early 1823 Prince was one of five commissioners selected to lay out the town of Macon. He was elected to the

State senate A state legislature in the United States is the legislative body of any of the 50 U.S. states. The formal name varies from state to state. In 27 states, the legislature is simply called the ''Legislature'' or the ''State Legislature'', whil ...

in 1824. In 1828 he was elected by the state legislature to the U.S. Senate in a special election to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of Thomas W. Cobb. He served from November 7, 1828, to March 3, 1829, as a

Jacksonian Democrat Jacksonian democracy was a 19th-century political philosophy in the United States that expanded suffrage to most white men over the age of 21, and restructured a number of federal institutions. Originating with the seventh U.S. president, An ...

, supporting the president in the

Indian Removal Act The Indian Removal Act was signed into law on May 28, 1830, by United States President Andrew Jackson. The law, as described by Congress, provided "for an exchange of lands with the Indians residing in any of the states or territories, and for ...

of 1830. This authorized the government to remove the tribes especially from the Southeast to Indian Territory west of the Mississippi River. All the

Five Civilized Tribes The term Five Civilized Tribes was applied by European Americans in the colonial and early federal period in the history of the United States to the five major Native American nations in the Southeast—the Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Creek ...

were affected in this removal, and they lost many members in the harsh conditions of their journeys.

Later years

Prince later worked again as an editor. He presided over the first railroad convention in Georgia, and was one of the first stockholders and directors of the

Georgia Railroad Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States Georgia may also refer to: Places Historical states and entities * Related to the ...

, critical to developing infrastructure in the state. He abandoned the practice of law in 1832 and moved with his wife to Milledgeville, then the state capital. He purchased and became the editor of the '' Georgia Journal,'' an influential newspaper. He sold the journal in 1835, retiring with his family at the age of 48 to a farm he bought in

Athens, Georgia Athens, officially Athens–Clarke County, is a consolidated city-county and college town in the U.S. state of Georgia. Athens lies about northeast of downtown Atlanta, and is a satellite city of the capital. The University of Georgia, the sta ...

. Their son Oliver, Jr. attended a preparatory school in

Gwinnett County, Georgia Gwinnett County ( ) is located in the north central portion of the U.S. state of Georgia. It forms part of the Atlanta metropolitan area. In 2020, the population was 957,062, making it the second-most populous county in Georgia (after Fulto ...

. Prince and his wife left in May 1837 for a trip to New York and Boston, where he worked with his publisher for some months preparing the second edition of his ''Law Digest'' for publication. They missed their children and were looking forward to their return. After sailing from New York on October 7, 1837, both Prince and his wife died in the wreck of the steam

packet ship Packet boats were medium-sized boats designed for domestic mail, passenger, and freight transportation in European countries and in North American rivers and canals, some of them steam driven. They were used extensively during the 18th and 19th ...

,'' which was caught in Racer's Storm, a destructive hurricane that hit both the Gulf and Atlantic coasts. Although the ship had been converted for ocean going, it carried only three lifeboats and two life preservers. It grounded near

Ocracoke Inlet Ocracoke Inlet ()
, from the North Carolina Collection's website at the

on October 8, 1837, and broke up the next day. The ship was 537 tons, long and wide. The remains of the estimated 90 victims, mostly women and children, were never recovered. Years later, the three Prince children erected a cenotaph in Rose Hill Cemetery in Macon in their parents' honor.

Legacy and honors

*Prince's most famous sketch was published anonymously in ''The Monitor'' on June 6, 1807, but it was reprinted, translated into several foreign languages, and published in Augustus Baldwin Longstreet's ''Georgia Scenes'' (1835), which went through several editions in the 19th century. Most famously, the sketch of Captain Clodpole and his Georgia militia recruits is believed to have been plagiarized by the British author Thomas Hardy in his ''The Trumpet Major'' (1888), in a chapter on an English rural militia. Such charges were ignored and then denied by Hardy but critics think the similarities are too strong to be coincidence. *In 1859 Prince Avenue, the section of the Federal Road west of downtown in Athens, Georgia, was named for him. It had led from town to his plantation. Later in the road's development, it was described as "once one of the nation's finest boulevards."Frances Taliaferro Thomas, ''A Portrait of Historic Athens and Clarke County'' (1992)

References

External links