SENATE, 55th and 56th General Assemblies, 1907-11; representing Montgomery and Robertson counties; Democrat. Born in Robertson County near Adams Oct 11, 1870; son of Joshua W. and Eliza (Dancey) Fort. Attended "common schools" of Robertson County; three years at University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Knox County; received, 1891, LL.B. degree from Cumberland University, Lebanon, Wilson County. Married at Clarksville, Montgomery County, Nov 11, 1896, to Benjamin [sic] Gill, daughter of B. F. and Mary (Yancey) Gill; children – Josiah and Mary Yancey. Practiced law at Clarksville from 1891. City attorney of Clarksville twenty-five years; member city council; city board of education; state Commissioner of Finance and Taxation under Gov. Hill McAlister, 1933-36; judge 9th Judicial circuit, 1936 until retirement in 1952. Chairman, Montgomery County Democratic Committee; member state Democratic committee; delegate to Democratic National Conventions, 1932, 1936. Member First Baptist Church, Clarksville, and teacher of Baraca Sunday School class; clerk of Cumberland Association of Baptist Churches seventeen years; trustee and treasurer of Odd Fellows Home twenty-five years; member Knights of Pythias, Junior Order of Odd Fellows; Philomathic Club; Chamber of Commerce; Kiwanis Club. Died at Clarksville June 5, 1955; buried in Greenwood Cemetery.

Sources: Hale and Merritt, Tennessee and Tennesseans, 916; Clarksville Daily Leaf-Chronicle, Nov 12, 1896; information supplied by grandson, J. Buist Richardson, Nashville, and by Mrs. Oscar Beach, Clarksville, TN; Vital Statistics, Death Certificate No. 13, 237.
 

Biographies submitted by Jill Hastings-Johnson, Montgomery County Archivist