Montgomery-Robertson County TN Archives Biographies.....Fort, Dancey 1870 - 
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Joy Fisher sdgenweb@gmail.com October 25, 2005, 4:53 am

Author: Will T. Hale

   DANCEY FORT. A representative member of the bar of his native state and a

former member of the senate of this commonwealth, Mr. Fort is engaged in the

practice of his profession at Clarksville, the judicial center of Montgomery

county and is known as a liberal and progressive citizen, well worthy of the

high regard in which he is held in the community. He has a substantial

professional business and is recognized as one of the able advocates and well

fortified counselors at the bar of Montgomery county.



   Mr. Fort was born at Adams, Robertson county, Tennessee, on the 11th of

October, 1870, and is a representative of a family whose name has been long and

prominently identified with the annals of the fine old South. He is a son of

Josiah W. and Eliza (Dancey) Fort, the former of whom was born in Robertson

county, this state, in 1833, and the latter of whom was born in Alabama, in

1834, their marriage having been solemnized in Robertson county, Tennessee. Of

the six children the subject of this review was the fifth in order of birth, and

concerning the others the following brief data are given: Joel B. is a lawyer by

profession and is engaged in successful practice at Adams, Robertson county;

William D. died at the age of about thirty-nine years: Charles H. is a

prosperous farmer and stock-grower of Robertson county; Sterling is prominently

identified with the banking business at Clarksville; and Charlotte is the wife

of Frank M. Baker, of Cairo, Illinois.



   Dancey Fort is a scion of the fourth generation of the family in Tennessee,

where his great-great-grandfather, Elias Fort, established his residence in

1787. This sterling pioneer secured a large tract of government land in

Robertson county and there developed a valuable plantation, upon which he passed

the residue of his life. The land is still in the possession of his descendants,

and is one of the fine estates of that section of Tennessee, with whose civic

and industrial development and progress the family name has been most closely

concerned. Of the two sons of Elias Fort, who immigrated to this state from

Edgecombe county, North Carolina, the elder was Josiah and the younger Joel, the

latter having been the father of Josiah W., father of him whose name initiates

this sketch.



   Josiah W. Fort was reared to adult age on the old homestead place in

Robertson county and his early educational advantages in his youth were those

afforded in the common schools of the locality and period. The discipline was

effectively supplemented by higher academic training under the direction of

private tutors, and he became a man of broad and liberal education. Up to the

age of forty years he gave his attention primarily to agricultural pursuits and

he then entered the ministry of the Baptist church, in which he labored with

consecrated zeal and devotion and with marked intellectual strength until the

time of his death, which occurred in Robertson county, when he was about

fifty-four years of age. He was a man who was well qualified for leadership in

thought and action and he ever commanded high vantage-place in the confidence

and esteem of his fellow-men. He was inflexible in his allegiance to the

Democratic party and was influential in public affairs of a local order. He

served several years as chairman of the county court of Robertson county and was

long and prominently affiliated with the Masonic fraternity. His wife, who was a

woman of most gentle and gracious personality and who was most zealous in church

work, was summoned to the life eternal at the age of forty-seven years. She was

a daughter of William Dancey, a native of Alabama, whence he came to Tennessee

in an early day, his vocation during the major part of his active career having

been that of a planter.



   Dancey Fort gained his earlier educational discipline in the excellent public

schools of Robertson county, and thereafter attended the literary or academic

department of the University of Tennessee for three years. In preparation for

the work of his chosen profession he entered the law department of Cumberland

University, at Lebanon, this state, in which excellent institution he was

graduated as a member of the class of 1891 and from which he received his degree

of Bachelor of Laws, with virtually simultaneous admission to the bar of his

native state. In September of the same year Mr. Fort located in Clarksville,

where he entered the office of Hon. John F. House, who represented his district

in the United States congress for several years, and he was associated in

practice with Mr. House during his professional novitiate and until he had

effectually won definite prestige in his chosen vocation. Mr. Fort now controls

an excellent practice of representative order and within the past two decades he

has been concerned in much important litigation in the various courts of this

section of the state, where he has won high standing as a resourceful and

versatile trial lawyer and as a counsel or admirably fortified in the science of

jurisprudence.



   Mr. Fort has been an ardent and effective worker in behalf of the cause of

the Democratic party, and has been one of its leaders in Montgomery county. In

1906 he was elected to represent this district in the state senate, in which he

served during the general assemblies from 1907 until 1911, and in which he made

his influence a potent force in the furtherance of judicious legislation. He was

assigned to membership on various important committees of the senate and had the

distinction of serving as chairman of the judiciary committee. He was active and

influential in the deliberations of the upper house and in those of its

committee-rooms, and he retired from office in 1911, since which time he has

again given his undivided attention to the work of his profession. He is

prominently affiliated with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, in which he

has passed the various official chairs in his lodge, and he is a member of the

board of trustees of the Odd Fellows' Club of Clarksville. He also holds

membership in the local organizations of the Benevolent and Protective Order of

Elks and the Knights of Pythias. Mr. Fort takes a lively interest in all that

concerns the welfare and progress of his home city and is here a member of the

directorate of the Northern Bank of Tennessee, one of the leading financial

institutions of this part of the state. His religious faith is that of the

Baptist church, in which he was reared, and his wife holds membership in the

Christian church.



   On the 11th of November, 1896, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Fort to

Miss Benjamin Gill, daughter of Benjamin F. Gill, who is now a representative

citizen of Clarksville and who was born in the state of Kentucky. Mr. and Mrs.

Fort have two children, Josiah and Mary Yancey, and the family is one of

prominence in connection with the leading social activities of the fine little

capital city of Montgomery county.



Additional Comments:
From:



A history of Tennessee and Tennesseans : the leaders and representative men in

commerce, industry and modern activities

by Will T. Hale

Chicago:  Lewis Pub. Co.,  1913





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