Bonded by blood and service
Cragmont Community DNA Project uncovers international military connection rooted in Black Mountain
Fred McCormick
The Valley Echo
August 26, 2022
Prentiss Stepps, pictured here in Vietnam, spent much of his childhood in the Cragmont community of Black Mountain, where he was inspired to pursue a career in the military. Photo courtesy of Prentiss Stepps
Growing up in a small town within the province of Vicenza, Italy, surrounded by the ancient beauty of the Mediterranean country’s northern region, Sarah Polanco experienced a childhood that could accurately be described as idyllic.
“Whatever someone envisions when they think of the best childhood you could possibly have, that was me,” said Polanco, one of five siblings who grew up in the loving military home of Prentiss and Adriana Stepps. Their warm family extended to their mother’s nearby native city of Padua, but the children knew very little about their father’s roots in a close-knit Black Mountain community established by men and women of color in the years following emancipation.
As the family sought a deeper understanding of their American heritage through the Cragmont Community DNA Project, which was launched in 2021 to explore the ancestry of descendants of the neighborhood from which it takes its name, they revealed a connection through service to the country that extends around the globe.
The community along Cragmont Road, which twists westwardly from West State Street to North Fork Road, became home to many formerly enslaved people who settled in the area in the late 1800s. By the mid-20th century, the neighborhood was a thriving hub for African American families who operated churches, schools and businesses in the growing settlement.
It was all very familiar to Prentiss, who spent his weekends and summers with his family members in the community as a child.
“My great-grandmother, great-grandfather, aunts, uncles and everybody were out there,” said the 80-year-old U.S. Army Veteran who retired from a 21-year military career in 1980. “I was there all the time. I remember my uncle Arthur owned a store right there on Cragmont, and he would always give the kids candy, so we always made it a point to go by and say hi to Uncle Arthur.”
Like many of his friends and relatives, Prentiss was inspired by the elder generations from the Cragmont community, including an uncle who served in the Korean War, to consider a future in the military. His path, however, would take him far from home.
“I attended Saint Anthony of Padua, on Walton Street in Asheville, for elementary school,” he said. “Every year they offered one scholarship to St. Emma Military Academy, in Powhatan, Virginia, to a student with the highest grade point average.”
Prentiss enrolled in the prestigious military school at the age of 13 and enlisted in the Army four years later.
“My mother had to sign me up because I was only 17,” said Prentiss, who reported to Fort Jackson, in S.C., for basic training in 1959. A few years later, while stationed in Italy, the young soldier from the mountains of Western North Carolina met a woman from a nearby town with a familiar name.
Prentiss and Adriana Stepps celebrate their wedding day in Padua, Italy, in 1965. Photo courtesy of Prentiss Stepps
“She told me she was from Padua, Italy, which was a big coincidence because I went to Saint Anthony of Padua for elementary school,” said Prentiss, who married Adriana in 1965. “I remember being in class one day, and the priest told us that if any of us were lucky, we would go to Padua and see the place where Saint Anthony is buried. I didn’t really think that would be me, and I certainly never imagined I would be lucky enough to marry a woman from there.”
A family far from home
Adjusting to life in Vicenza, which became the family’s permanent home in 1973, proved seamless for Prentiss, who brought a passion for faith, family and the game of baseball to his new hometown.
“Dad has always had a huge heart and he’s such a caring person. He’s always been well-respected and very involved in the community,” Polanco said. “There were not many people of color in that part of the world at the time, and the context of racism is much different there than it is in the U.S., but it was not common to see African Americans walking around Europe.”
The Stepps family, from left to right: Sarah Polanco, Angela Gundersen, Christopher Stepps, Prentiss Stepps, Barbara Johnson, Adriana Stepps, and Alessandra Stokstad. Photo courtesy of Prentiss Stepps
While her father soon became an “integral part of the community,” according to Polanco, his children grew up keenly aware of the fact that they knew little about where he came from, or their family’s history in Black Mountain.
“He had fond memories, and we knew the names of our great-grandparents, so nothing was hidden from us,” she said. “But there was no social media at the time, and I think dad lost his connection to the area.”
Her contrasting relationship with her mother’s side of the family fueled Polanco’s curiosity.
“We were very close with her family,” she said. “She grew up about 30 minutes away from Vicenza, and I knew everything about them. She was the youngest of four siblings, so her older sister would tell me stories about their family, and even their experiences during World War II. I would listen to them talk for hours, and I loved hearing them because they made me feel connected to the generations that came before us.”
Polanco and her siblings desired a similar understanding of their relatives on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean.
“Dad was an only child, so when he left the U.S., he lost touch with his cousins and aunts,” she said. “We were always curious to know if he had any living family members, and if they even knew about us.”
Retracing their Stepps to a ‘magical’ homecoming
The Stepp surname is woven into the very fabric of the Cragmont community. Prentiss Stepps’ family, which descends from a slave owner named Joseph Stepp and an enslaved woman named Myra, were among the first freed people to settle in the community.
An error on his birth certificate listed Prentiss’ last name as “Stepps,” but his lineage can be traced back to his great-great-grandmother, Myra Stepp, as well as other prominent names from the neighborhood, including Burnette and Moore.
Polanco and her brother, Christopher, were fascinated by what they learned as they slowly began researching their family tree.
“These people played such a key role in developing Black Mountain, from the African American standpoint,” Polanco said. “They were truly entrepreneurs and amazing people with a rich culture. They worked so hard for their children, and that was something that really resonated with me.
“I just really felt like theirs was a story that needed to be told,” she continued. “I was excited to have this heritage to pass on to my kids.”
Prentiss, whose mother, Mary Jane Stepp, passed away shortly after he began to settle in Italy, was surprised to learn of his children’s interest in his ancestry.
“I brought my wife home for my mother’s funeral, and she met some of my family members there,” he said. “But, when we came back to Italy our lives went on, and I never really thought much about going back home.”
By 2015, it had been nearly 50 years since Prentiss had been to Black Mountain, but he was eager to return with Adriana when they visited his son, who was stationed in S.C. at the time. Polanco, who moved to Maryland in 2014, drove down to meet them.
“It was a magical experience,” Polanco said. “When we drove into Black Mountain it was like seeing certain parts of it really sparked dad’s memory.”
The stories, which his children had longed to hear, began coming back to their father.
“We went to the old church on Cragmont Road, and visited the cemetery,” Prentiss said. “I showed them where my mother’s land was, right across the street from the Carver Community Center. I quickly started recognizing all of the homes where my relatives had lived.”
As she explored the area with her father, Polanco felt a “spiritual connection” to the land.
“It was profound,” she said. “I felt like I was walking in the footsteps of my father, and I had this feeling that I didn’t want to leave. We had heard a little bit about Black Mountain when I was young, but being there brought it to life. I’m really looking forward to bringing my own family there.”
A community bonded by service
Prentiss retired from the military 42 years ago, but his legacy of service continues through his children. His oldest daughter, Alessandra, is a retired U.S. Air Force colonel, while another daughter, Angela, was promoted to brigadier general. Chris, his youngest child, is currently an Air Force major, while Polanco and her sister Barbara both hold civilian positions with the military.
“That’s a big piece of my dad’s legacy,” said Polanco, who encouraged her father to submit a sample for the Cragmont Community DNA Project when she learned about it through connections she made while researching her family.
The initiative, which tests the DNA of Stepps, Moores, Burnettes and dozens of other surnames prominent in the community, beginning the 1930s, allows project administrator and professional genealogist Connie Bradshaw to identify shared segments of DNA inherited from a common ancestor.
Through DNA provided by Prentiss, Bradshaw, a retired 26-year U.S. Navy Veteran who founded the genealogical research company I Dig Your Roots in 2012, revealed a snapshot of the Cragmont community’s connection through military service.
Group projects offered by FamilyTreeDNA.com, which hosts the Cragmont Community DNA Project, represent a unique feature for members seeking information regarding a specific genealogy-related topic. Co-administrators Regina Lynch-Hudson and Leslie Whittington, both natives of the neighborhood, launched the initiative to reconnect former residents of the historically Black community.
Uncovering links between members helps tell the larger story of Cragmont’s impact in the Swannanoa Valley, and beyond, according to Whittington, who served as an officer in the U.S. Navy and shares 203 CentiMorgans (cM) of DNA with Prentiss, his second cousin once removed. The unit of measurement identifies the amount of shared DNA expressed in segments of the hereditary material.
Les Whittington, who was identified as a second cousin once removed of Prentiss Stepps, is one of many people from the Cragmont community who enlisted in the military in pursuit of a better life. Photo courtesy of Regina Lynch-Hudson, the Write Publicist
“One of the main reasons I went in was my family’s history in the military,” said the 66-year-old Whittington, one of many natives of the Cragmont community who served in the military. “I had an older brother named Bill who was in the Army, and I always looked up to him for that. Our uncle Will was in World War I, and he was one of many men in the community we admired.”
Serving the country, he continued, offered many young men in Cragmont a chance to begin their careers while traveling the world.
“For Black people in particular, at that time, you couldn’t count on opportunity in the private sector, but in the military you could,” Whittington said. “I never experienced any racism in the military, because we were all brothers who depended on each other.”
Another second cousin once removed of Prentiss, Drennon P. Stepp, Sr., 83, who began his 20-year U.S. Air Force career in 1956, was identified in the project’s database. His son, Drennon P. Stepp, Jr., 61, retired in 1999 after a 20-year career in the Marines.
Drennon P. Stepp, Sr., left, a native of the Cragmont community, enlisted in the U.S. Air Force in 1956, while his son, Drennon P. Stepp, Jr., retired from a 20-year career the U.S. Marine Corps in 1999. Both men were identified as relatives of Prentiss Stepps through the Cragmont community DNA Project. Photo courtesy of Regina Lynch-Hudson, the Write Publicist
Wallace Lynch, 87, who still lives near his childhood home in the Cragmont community and was drafted into the Army in 1958, was found to share 114 cM of DNA with Prentiss, his third cousin. The military career of Wallace’s brother, Winfred, who passed away in 2019 at the age of 82, and is the only deceased veteran currently included in the Cragmont Community DNA Project, included two tours of duty in Vietnam. Winfred was awarded multiple service medals, including two Bronze Stars, during his 25 years of service to his country.
The military offered life-altering opportunities for many of the men from the Cragmont community, including Winfred, who enlisted to make a better life for himself and his family. His years in the military allowed him to save money by living in rent-free barracks, as he set aside his earnings to build a brick house on family land. The home, lovingly designed as a gift to his mother, was the first custom-built two-story brick home of its kind in the neighborhood.
“Men like Winfred were people we could look up to,” Whittington said. “In our community, it was drilled into us from a young age to be good citizens, so we were big on church and school. The military was just one more way a lot of us could be the best we could be.”
Winfred Lynch, left, and his brother, Wallace, third cousins of Prentiss Stepps. Photo courtesy of Regina Lynch-Hudson, the Write Publicist
While the careers of some brought them back to the mountains, Prentiss’ path led him to find a home and raise a family in Italy.
“I’m happy I did this,” Prentiss said of joining the Cragmont Community DNA Project. “When Sarah first approached me about this, I wasn’t too sure. But she talked me into it, and because of this experience, the information we’ve learned has been amazing.”
The stories of both sides of her family can now be passed down to the younger generations, Polanco said.
“This has had an impact on our entire family, because it’s something we always wanted to know more about,” she said. “Now my children, and my nieces and nephews, will have a better understanding of where, and who, we came from.”
Reconnecting the Stepps to their roots in the Cragmont neighborhood represents the mission of the project, according to Whittington.
“This is really for the future, when it will be a record for children to know their family’s history,” he said. “They’ll know they came from a long line of successful people who were proud, and who had respect for themselves and other people. Knowing that gives you strength to lean on when times get tough.”
For more information on the Cragmont Community DNA Project, including links to join, visit familytreedna.com/groups/cragmont-community/about/background.