Harry Rowland’s Purple Heart is awarded 100
years after he was wounded in battle.
Macon County native, the late Harry Pinkerton Rowland, was a decorated WWI veteran who was wounded in France. A patriotic man who loved his country, Harry was humble and never sought recognition for his service; he felt it was a duty and honor to serve his country.
Harry Rowland’s patriotism became a main part of his legacy that was passed to his living children. His daughter, Shirley Rowland Palmer, recalled her father taking her to Pendergrass Store at Easter when she was eight years old. Mrs. Pendergrass took her upstairs and told her to pick out the dress she would like to have. Shirley picked out a blue top with little white stars and a skirt with red and white stripes. She thought it was her daddy’s gift for her birthday which was June 14th which is also Flag Day.
In those days, patriotism was high. It started in the school system with the children. The school day started with Bible verses, the Pledge of Allegiance, and patriotic songs. The students gathered around the flagpole and raised the flag for the day.
During WWI and WWII, men were drafted into service. If a young man was seen walking down the street during wartime, often someone would ask him, “Why are you not over there fighting with the rest of the boys?” Sometimes the person had a medical waiver and couldn’t serve.
Harry Rowland wasn’t drafted into service during WWI. He relished the opportunity to serve his country, so he volunteered. Harry joined the 61st Infantry Division, nicknamed the Red Diamond Division and served in France. When his division entered an area between Argonne and the river Meuse, they encountered one of the most difficult tasks ever facing an American division. They endured eleven days of concentrated enemy artillery along with machine gun and rifle fire from three directions.
On October 12th, 1918 while his unit was being hammered by enemy fire, Harry Rowland was helping medics transport wounded soldiers. Severely wounded when he was hit by shrapnel in his left leg, another soldier began carrying him off the battlefield. The private started to lay him down after an enemy shell landed nearby. Sargent Harry Rowland pulled rank on the soldier and told him, “You better not lay me down!”
After Harry spent two months rehabilitating from his injury at a New York hospital, he returned home to Franklin in October of 1919. As a disabled veteran, the government provided him vocational training in auto mechanics. He worked as a mechanic for many years, for the Civilian Conservation Corp at Camp Nathaniel Green located at Rainbow Springs, and he also worked for Alcoa (Aluminum Company of America) on the Fontana Dam project. Fontana Dam and the other projects spearheaded by Alcoa were critical to the manufacturing of aluminum and other products needed during the war.
Although her father passed away when she was ten-years-old, Shirley Palmer has vivid memories of her father listening to war correspondent Walter Winchell during WWII. The family had a battery-powered radio. A copper wire, running through the window to a buried copper radiator, provided a ground. With the bombing of Pearl Harbor and the United States entering into WWII, Harry Rowland once again volunteered but was turned down because he had too many dependents.
He was working at Fontana Dam as a mechanic, when he decided to pursue another job. He drove to Bryson City to leave his tools at the new job site. It was November 3rd, 1942, the day of the midterm elections. Harry asked his good friend Lake Shope to hold the polls open because he would be returning to Franklin late. Returning from Bryson City via Highway 28, a logging truck crossed the center line and hit him head-on. Harry died the next day.
Although it’s been seventy-seven years since her father’s death, Shirley’s memory of that day and the tremendous blow it was to the family, never faded. Shirley’s mother Nannie was left with six small children at home and a farm to work. Fiercely independent, she and the family farmed and survived with just Harry’s WWI disability pension, a small amount of Social Security benefits and much old-fashioned determination.
After Harry’s death, he had no son old enough to enter WWII and carry on his legacy. His daughter Mary wanted to honor her father and joined the WAC (Women’s Army Corps), served honorably, and earned the Victory Medal and the good conduct medal.
The years rolled by but Shirley Palmer’s childhood memories of her father, his warm embrace and his deep love for his country never faded. She recalled, “I could feel his love for me; in his eyes, I could do no wrong.”
Many years later, Shirley noticed an article in The Atlanta Journal about a WWI veteran who applied for a Purple Heart at the age of eighty. During WWI when her father was wounded in battle, the Purple Heart program had been suspended and was unavailable for the 204,000 WWI veterans who were wounded in action. The program was reinstated during the 1920’s with a limited number of Purple Hearts created for those WWI veterans. Harry Rowland didn’t apply for his medal, partly because he didn’t seek recognition, and during the struggle of The Great Depression, a medal wasn’t a priority.
In 2002, with old-fashioned pluck and pure determination,Shirley Palmer began a quest to have her father’s purple heart awarded posthumously. An avid genealogist, Shirley could find no record of Harry’s service in Macon County. She contacted Congressman Charles Taylor’s office, seeking their assistance; Shirley also contacted the U.S. Army Personnel Center in St. Louis Missouri. A fire in the 1970’s had destroyed a large number of military records, including her father’s.
After a long search, Shirley located her dad’s service record through a genealogy search on the Internet. With the assistance of the Macon County Veterans’ Service Office, she again contacted the Department of the Army and finally received verification that Harry was truly entitled to the Purple Heart.
In October of 2018, Shirley finally received her father’s Purple Heart, one-hundred years after Harry was wounded in battle. The award was an accomplishment on Shirley’s “bucket list” and has become one her most treasured possessions.
When Shirley now holds her father Harry’s Purple heart, a ten-year-old girl and her father reach across the years and embrace. Time fades and the years disappear. The only thing present is a young girl and her father’s love for her.
Matthew Baker is the author of “My Mountain Heroes Stories of Inspiration and Courage from Macon County’s Greatest Generation” The book is available at Books Unlimited and The Macon County Historical Museum.
