John Porter Fort - A Memorial & Personal Reminiscences

John Porter Fort - A Memorial & Personal Reminiscences - Part III John Porter Fort - A Memorial and Personal Reminiscences
Part III

EXTRACTS FROM THE NEWSPAPERS IN THE STATE OF GEORGIA

The Macon "Daily Telegraph," Saturday Morning, May 11, 1907

by JOHN T. BOIFEUILLET

Speaking of John P. Fort reminds me that to him is due the credit of introducing artesian wells in southwestern Georgia, where he owned large farming lands. He desired to protect and improve the health of his tenants and other laborers by freeing them from the necessity of drinking the rotten limestone water in shallow wells which was considered productive of chills, fever, and other sickness. So this progressive Maconite decided to experiment with artesian wells and he had on bored on one of his plantations from which a splendid flow of fine water was obtained. The result was so gratifying that he had other wells bored and the health of the people on his farms became first class. The glad news was spread throughout all that section of country, and other planters followed Captain Fort's example, and in a short time the boring of artesian wells became common in that territory. An official publication says that the sanitary advantages that have resulted to many towns and localities all over the southwest Georgia coastal plan through the pure, wholesome drinking water of the artesian wells, are seen in the fact that sections once dreaded as malarial and sickly are now considered among the salubrious in the State and are increasing more rapidly in population than even the country of north Georgia. The average depth of the wells in south Georgia is about four hundred and fifty feet, and as the various strata penetrated are comparatively free of rock, the wells are bored at small cost. Bulletin No. 7 of the State Geological Survey says: "While there is much yet to be learned about the underground water system of the coastal plain, there is, nevertheless, sufficient known already to warrant the statement that almost this entire portion of the State is underlaid by pervious beds which will furnish large quantities of pure, wholesome water when pierced by the drill." When Captain Fort drilled his first artesian well he bored better than he knew. The Maconite became a public benefactor. Georgia is due him much for his foresight and progressiveness, his philanthropy and humanity.

From the Albany "Herald" of Friday, November 1, 1912

by EMORY SPEER

The observant people of Georgia have long been aware of the blessings many enjoy through the inducting philosophy of a distinguished and unpretentious son of our State. Our university has honored him and itself by the degree, Doctor of Science. Dr. John P. Fort was the first who made evident how practical and how efficient are those artesian wells whose copious and healthful supply are now gushing in every community and on many farms in that fertile empire known as South Georgia.

The Albany "Herald", February 11, 1913

by W. A. HUFF

I never see or hear anything about the country around and about Albany that I do not think of John P. Fort.

Colonel Fort, by his wise experiment and persistent efforts, made it possible for white people to live in a country which had heretofore been regarded as almost uninhabitable.

Colonel Fort called on me as he passed through Macon last week and on his way to his farm in south Georgia. Like myself, he is rapidly yielding to the weight of years as they carry him along the down-hill of life, but oh, what a halo of business glory will brighten and bless forever the memory of southwest Georgia's greatest benefactor!

A grateful people will never be able to build a monument high enough to signalize the debt they owe to John P. Fort. But as the good that men do lives after them, all coming generations will breathe out prayer of praise for him who made it possible for their ancestors to know the eternal joys that flow from the bosom of Mother Earth through the life-giving arteries of artesian wells.

In the meantime you will continue to preach to the farmers of Georgia the gospel of truth and righteousness from the text - " The Life Worth Living," which, when illustrated, means - peace, health, happiness, and prosperity, for all who learn to live at home and board at the same place.

The Clayton "Tribune", Friday, May 9, 1914

EDITORIAL

Col. John P. Fort, a graduate of Oglethorpe College, and on of the men who first got a vision of future possibilities of Rabun County's apples, was in Clayton, Wednesday. Colonel Fort owns on of the finest orchards in the county at Mountain City, and has done more in the way of growing fine fruits and advertising northeast Georgia, thereby enhancing the value of our mountain lands, than any other one man. Colonel Fort is now about seventy-one years of age, but is very active. He joined the Confederate army in the beginning of the Civil War as a private, but was promoted and at the close he came out with honors and as a lieutenant. As Dr. Fort is able to talk with nature, we might compare him with Benjamin Franklin; he has been honored by our University with the degree of Doctor of Science. Dr. Fort was not satisfied with growing apples in northeast Georgia (in Rabun County), which took the prize in Spokane, Washington, at the great apple show, and for the last year or so he has been studying the conditions and needs of south and southwest Georgia, and while he was on duty as a Confederate soldier, he saw the beautiful Wakulla River on the coast of Florida, as it bursts forth into the Apalachee Bay and the Gulf of Mexico. Dr. Fort's ability to reason and know things told him that this beautiful clear river had its origin away up in the "old red hills of Georgia," and last year he made another trip to see this great spring or bay and to learn more about it. Dr. Fort traced the formation and vegetation up through Florida and on through the counties of Decatur, Grady, Early, Miller, Baker, Mitchell, Calhoun, Dougherty, etc, and he is satisfied that it heads in the counties of Laurens, Twigg, and Bibb. Dr. Fort owns a large plantation in Dougherty County, containing some three thousand acres, and last year he bored an artesian well on this farm about seven hundred feet deep, at an expense of about three thousand dollars, and not to his surprise but the surprise of his neighbors, Georgia, and our United States Government, he tapped the undercurrent of the beautiful Wakulla River and through a three-inch pipe, it has been estimated a flow of eighty thousand gallons per day can be attained, and the expense of obtaining this flow and building reservoirs from which to conduct the waters to the crops is much cheaper in comparison with any other method of irrigation known to the world. This discovery by Dr. Fort will probably make it possible for other such discoveries to be made, and it has more than doubled the value of the farming lands in south Georgia, which are so subject to droughts. This theory of Dr. Fort's is thoroughly demonstrated as water of this well rises and falls with the Gulf tide and water is inexhaustible and his discovery is so highly prized by the Irrigation Bureau of the Department of Agriculture, that it has conferred upon Dr. Fort the signal dignity of "Collaborator," and monthly there comes and will come to him during his life a treasury draft as a token from his country of its government's appreciation and value of his discovery, and the time is now here that not only northeast and southwest Georgia will tip their hats to Dr. Fort's ability as a scientist, and his name will go down to future generations as one of America's greatest men.

Macon "Daily Telegraph", September 30, 1913

by JAMES CALLAWAY

Colonel John P. Fort is one of the sure-enough progressives of the State. His progressivism is not destructive like that of the Western politicians, but is of the sort that promotes the welfare of his State. It is well-known that he gave to Georgia her first artesian well. Albany followed his example and became the "Artesian City," appropriate sobriquet - for it is a city of artesian wells.

Some couple of years ago or more Colonel Fort decided to experiment with truck gardening on his Dougherty County farm. He built a huge reservoir for the purpose of irrigation. Speaking of this a few evenings since, sitting on the veranda of the Albany Inn, Colonel Fort said:

"I'm glad to say my experiment is a success. Irrigation is not needed so much here as in the West, still we have dry spells, and to make truck growing a successful enterprise, I prepared for seasons of dry weather. This year I will make 176 bushels of corn per acre in the range of the reservoir, and I gathered onions until we were fatigued gathering them and preparing for market. And all other , such as beans, tomatoes, okra, lettuce, salads, grew abundantly. After gathering the onions the land was planted in corn, which is now in the roasting ear stage, and at this season roasting ears are in good demand. To prevent mosquitoes from breeding in the reservoir, put into it fish, which destroy the larvae, and also erected martin poles with old-fashioned martin gourds around the basin of water. Martins, you know, feed on mosquitoes. On the ponds on my place I put kerosene oil, so the plantation is free from mosquitoes - resulting in health for all on the farm. Besides my manager after rains goes through the quarters of the laborers and if there is any water in pans or cans or old vessels they are emptied. Thus by a little precaution my plantation is clear of mosquitoes.

Then to assist in truck growing it is important to conserve bird life. Every vegetable seems to have its insect enemy. Nature provides its checks and balances. But for years and years, reaching back for nearly a century, we have been killing the birds. Take the red-headed woodpecker, the blue jay, the yellow-hammers, partridges, larks, and the oriole family of birds, and they all feed upon insects. The orioles are especially fond of boll weevils, and it is said the blue jay and partridges are very destructive of them. But we destroyed nature's balance by indulging the pleasures of sport. Had we conserved bird life - natures remedy - insects and boll weevils had no been so destructive.

Fortunately there is a nation-wide campaign for the protection of birds. Congress has taken hold of the matter and our new tariff bill prohibits the importation of wild birds' plumage for commercial purposes. It will also abolish in the United States and its territorial possessions the traffic in the skins and feathers of wild birds. This national conservation of bird life, supplemented by vigorous State action protecting our home birds, will in time restore that balance nature provided for preserving food crops and fruits from insect ravages. It seems almost incomprehensible that we destroyed nature's remedy for protection to our crops. The unthinking will continue to destroy our birds if not prevented by the strong arm of the law."

The Albany "Herald", Tuesday, Feb. 13, 1917

News of the death of colonel John P. Fort at Tampa, Florida, where he was spending the winter, will carry sadness to all parts of Georgia.

For Colonel Fort was a distinguished citizen of this State, and was widely known as a pioneer in many fields of activity. He it was who bored the first artesian well in Georgia. A great many men laughed at him when he declared, after carefully studying the geology of this section, that he would sink a well to water-bearing strata several hundred feet below the surface, and that through the well purer water than the people of south Georgia had ever drunk would flow to the surface. That was thirty-five years ago, and Georgia's first artesian well, bored on one of Colonel Fort's plantations in Dougherty County, is still flowing. It is a simple but eloquent memorial of the man whose faith was not without works, and whom the ridicule of those with shorter vision could not discourage.

Today the health of no section of Georgia is better than that enjoyed by the people in the region of which Dougherty County is the geographical center, and much of the credit for the present splendid prosperity of southwestern Georgia is due to the man who was not afraid to "invest several thousand dollars in an auger hole in the ground," as some wise observers expressed it thirty-five years ago.

Colonel Fort has also been a pioneer in the field of irrigation in this section. Several years ago he publicly proclaimed the belief that a series of inexhaustible water-bearing strata runs beneath thousands of square miles of southwest Georgia territory, and he predicted that in time these strata would be tapped at many points, and drawn upon for water which would make garden spots of innumerable farming districts. He again showed his faith in what he proclaimed by drilling another artesian well on one of his Dougherty County plantations, where he has constructed and operated an irrigation plant that has given splendid practical demonstrations of the possibilities of this kind of agriculture in southwest Georgia.

Colonel Fort has also made valuable contributions to the advancement of horticulture, and his apple and cherry trees, in north Georgia, are famous through our the United States. He has raised the finest apples ever produced in the South, and several years ago the University of Georgia conferred upon him the degree of Doctor of Science, in recognition of what he had done for Southern horticulture.

Colonel Fort was a gallant Confederate soldier, and personally was beloved wherever he was known, particularly in Albany, Macon, Atlanta, Athens, and Mount Airy. His death is a distinct loss to Georgia.

The Albany "Herald", Wednesday, Feb. 14, 1917.

WHAT COLONEL FORT BELIEVED

It was the belief of the late Col. John P. Fort that much of southwest Georgia, including all the western part of Dougherty County, would one day blossom into a veritable garden spot as the result of a peculiar natural condition.

Colonel Fort bored the first artesian well in this section, and had made a lifelong study of the geology of the southern part of the State. He contended that a flowing artesian well might be secured almost anywhere in this region, but it was his belief that in the territory where he had make especially careful investigation, including West Dougherty, a vast water-bearing stratum, or perhaps several such strata, lay below the surface and that the supply of water held there could never be exhausted. Many springs in south Georgia and Florida, including the great Walulla spring and a number that boil up from the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico, were fed from this stratum, according to Colonel Fort's idea.

The picture in the mind of Colonel Fort, as he often spoke of this rich blessing enjoyed by our section, was of a region to the surface of which a part of this water supply had been brought for use in irrigation plants. He himself built such a plant on one of his Dougherty County plantations, and gave practical demonstrations of what it was possible to accomplish. The United States Government became interested in the experiment, and sent experts to make observation and lend assistance.

Colonel Fort did not expect to live to see his dreams come true, but he believed they would materialize for other generations. He knew that in the rich soil of this section wonderful crops could be made under irrigation, and that with an inexhaustible water supply a few hundred feet below the surface, the development he foresaw would in time come to pass.

Colonel Fort was no dreamer, though some persons thought he was when be began boring the first artesian well in Georgia. He lived to see hundreds of flowing wells and thousands from which pure water is pumped, and another generation will no doubt see his vision of a section made fabulously rich by irrigation likewise realized.

The Macon "Telegraph", February, 1917.

by JAMES CALLAWAY

I received a letter from Mr. Alfred C. Newell concerning a memorial to the memory of Col. John P. Fort. The letter in part reads:

"I note that John P. Fort, of Mount Airy, is dead. I write you this because it seem to me a movement should be initiated by some one to establish a memorial to this great man. He would not want a monument. He would be the last man in the world to care for anything like display. It seems to me, however, entirely fitting that a special appropriation could be made by the board of county commissioners of every county in south Georgia to the end that a small mountain school might be established somewhere about his beloved Mount Airy."

"What William H. Crawford, Charles F. Crisp, and Alfred H. Colquitt were to Georgia in a public sense; what Sidney Lanier and Joel Chandler Harris were to the State in a literary way; and what Henry Grady was as an editor-statesman John P. Fort has been to Georgia as the practical Scientist."

"In other words, his name deserves to be perpetuated in the immediate set of the biggest men in the State's history.

I don't think I am going too far when I say that he probably did more for Georgia in a practical way than any other one man. I have a long letter from him which he wrote some years ago telling me how he first came to think of drilling the original artesian well on his place near Albany. This was in 1881. You know, of course, the transformation which followed in this section."

"It was through his efforts that the apple culture was introduced in the north Georgia mountains."

"He was dreamer who dreamed dreams as well as a scientist who knew how to work out these dreams with a table of logarithms."

"His father before him was a great man, old Dr. Tomlinson Fort - the greatest antebellum physician of his day."

It is certainly appropriate that some steps be taken at once to erect a memorial to Colonel Fort. Nothing would be more fitting than a "mountain school." It is better than brass or marble. Mr. Newell has communicated his suggestion to Editor Henry McIntosh, of Albany, and also to Hon. Clark Howell.

The thought-forces worked strongly in Colonel Fort, making him a centrifugal force, a builder for humanity. He lived to see his visions become realities - blessings to mankind. He felt the responsibility resting upon him. He never permitted his faith to trail, but walked uprightly, full of good deeds and useful thoughts.

Colonel Fort was certainly the "practical scientist." Albany is known as the "Artesian City." Colonel Fort gave to Dougherty County its first flowing artesian well. His apples from the "hills of Habersham" and Rabun took the premium over all others at the fairs of the great Northwest.

Throw a rock into the air and by force of gravitation it falls. Yet right in the face of that power of gravitation, that life-giving principle called sap, flows to the top of the tallest tree, resuscitating its remotest branches. Colonel Fort's attempt to discover flowing artesian water was likened by his friends to the rock that falls to the ground. But his thought-forces within, in the face of discouragement, were like the ascending sap, bounding in hope and carrying triumph and beauty and health to every branch of his tree of endeavor. Every flowing artesian well in Georgia is a never-ceasing tribute to Colonel Fort - the "practical scientist," as Mr. Alfred Newell calls him.

Colonel Fort drove mosquitoes from his Dougherty County plantation by the simple device of putting up martin-gourds and bird-houses at the homes of his tenants. He had discovered that the swallows and martins fed on mosquitoes, and determined to located them on his premises by building little houses for them. On his recent visit to Macon he told the writer, his countenance lighting up with expressions of pleasure over his triumph, that his experiment had been a success and that the health of his tenants was excellent.

Two years ago he advised me to try the martin. But the tenants considered martin-gourds a relic of slavery times, and in their superstition would not erect the martin-poles. Colonel Fort also said the martins fed on boll weevils, and he expected to largely increase the number of martin-houses. And this was our last conversation, not many weeks ago. Yes, he was like Colonel Hunt, of Eaton, "a practical scientist" - the most useful of men.

COLONEL JOHN P. FORT

Letter to the EDITOR of the Journal:

I notice in a recent issue of the Journal the death of Colonel John P. Fort at Tampa, Fla., on the 12th inst. His home was in Mount Airy, Ga. In 1863 President Davis appointed John P. Fort a lieutenant in the First regiment of Georgia regulars, stationed at Hammocks Landing on the Appalachicola River, in Florida. The first time I saw Lieutenant Fort under fire was at Lake City, Fla., on the 10th of February, 1864. He was in command of the skirmish line of the regulars, trying to hold in check General Seamore's advance cavalry, who had dismounted and were fighting on foot. The cavalry were too strong for the lieutenant and forced his line back on the regiment, then mounted their horses and retreated toward Jacksonville. As a reminder of the fight they left Lieutenant Fort with a bullet hole through his hat. While Lieutenant Fort was a gallant soldier, he was a gentleman in the true meaning of the word, with his heart overflowing with kindness for his fellowman. One by one the regulars are crossing over the river to join their comrades on the other shore, who are sleeping beneath the shade of the beautiful trees in that home where all good soldiers who did their full and complete duty are at rest. The last three to cross were General King, General Lane, and Major Howard. There were about eighty officers who served in the regulars during the war, and I know of only eight who are still in the land of the living - General Harrison, General Kirklin, Colonel Twiggs, Captain Wyley, Captain Anthony, Captain Myers, Lieutenant Palmer and Lieutenant Blance - and they are swiftly gliding over the sea of time, waiting to hear the keel of their lifeboat grate upon the other shore. Yet a little while and the last Confederate soldier will have crossed over the river, and their like will never be seen again. They fought for the love of home country, fought without reward or the hope of reward, fought to the last ditch, and when all was lost except honor, furled their flags for the last time, outnumbered five to one, but never whipped.

Sweet be the sleep of Colonel John P. Fort. I loved him while living and will cherish his memory until I am called to answer the last roll call, and then I hope to meet him in the home of the blest.

W. H. ANDREWS

Late Orderly Sgt. Company M, First Ga. Regulars
20 Hayden Street, Atlanta, Ga.

TRIBUTE PAID BY
GEORGIA HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY

Colonel John P. Fort

Since our last annual meeting death has removed one of the most honored members of our association.

We not only owe his memory a page in our minutes bur the younger and especially the future members, those who shall preserve this valued organization, would name us recalcitrant to the true interests of our society if we failed to pay tribute to this advanced thinker, practical scientist, friend of humanity, evinced by his lifelong devotion to horticulture, and advocate of all rural betterment.

Thus from the mountains to the sea in our State his name will ever be recorded in nature's annals; sung by her fountains and embroidered by her flowers, and men shall remember and repeat his name with thanks when they lift the crystal goblet to their lips, or breathe the perfume of earth's sweetest benefaction, - an apple orchard.

From hidden and unknown depths the divining rod of his vision found and brought the sparkling water to refresh the low lands of Georgia. In common clay, unseen and unknown to others, he found the lusciousness of fruit, the bloom and fragrance of orchards to crown the peaks of Mount Airy.

The mountain elevation of his north Georgia farm, its granite foundation, its copious rainfall he truly foresaw must become the home of the apple industry.

The pioneer makes possible the success of the economist who later benefits from the foresight of the prophet.

Every member of this society appreciated the act of the State University in conferring on him the degree of "Doctor of Science."

It was a deserved tribute, fully earned.

His life's work is done, and this tribute can only be an inspiration to the living.

May it be assigned a page to be set apart in our records, as a memorial to his memory.

A RESOLUTION ADOPTED BY CITY COUNCIL, ALBANY, GEORGIA, FEBRUARY 13, 1917

WHEREAS this City Council has heard with profound sorrow of the death of Col. John P. Fort, for many years a resident of this City, which occurred on Tuesday, February 12th, int the City of Tampa, Florida, and,

WHEREAS the said Col. John P. Fort was honored and loved by everyone with whom he came in contact, a man of a lovable character, a friend to everybody, a loving husband and father, a man of the strictest honor and integrity, a man of great public spirit, who loved this section and its people, a man who has proven a public benefactor of this section and State by his introduction of artesian wells, and bringing the same into universal use,

THEREFOR BE IT RESOLVED:

I. That we deeply deplore the death of this great and good man, and tender to his bereaved family our most sincere and heartfelt sympathy in this their great sorrow.

II. That these Resolutions be spread upon our minutes and a copy of the same furnished to the family.

III. That as a further token of our respect and esteem of our departed friend this Council attend his funeral in a body.

I certify that the above is a true extract from the Minutes of Council held February 13, 1917.

This 13th day of March, 1917.

Y. C. Rust City Clerk

PART I - John Porter Fort - Personal Reminiscences
PART II - John Porter Fort - Personal Reminiscences