The mother of Col. Tomlinson Fort
Col. Tomlinson Fort
Bachelor Tomlinson Fort lived many years in a three-story home on the side of Cameron Hill. The colorful Confederate veteran lived at 609 W. Sixth.
Col. Fort arrived in Chattanooga soon after the Civil War to look after the large amount of property his father, Dr. Tomlinson Fort, had acquired in Chattanooga. Dr. Fort was a physician and legislator who had largely financed the Western and Atlantic Railroad in his capacity as president of the Central Bank of Georgia. The graduate of Philadelphia Medical College wrote a widely-recognized medical book. Dr. Fort died in 1859 at Milledgeville, Ga.
Col. Fort graduated when he was 18 from Oglethorpe University. He then studied at the Georgia Law School and was admitted to the bar at Milledgeville in 1858. As a part of the First Georgia Regulars, he was wounded five times. Near the close of the war he was so ill that he lost consciousness between March 1 to June 1, 1865, when he awoke in Raleigh, N.C., to find that General Lee had surrendered.
Col. Fort presented quite a scene as he made his Chattanooga debut. He was seated on a wagon pulled by an old team of Army mules and was wearing his Confederate uniform minus the buttons. He was rudely greeted at the Crutchfield House hotel by a recently freed slave who refused to wait on him. Col. Fort sprang from his chair and chased the waiter to the kitchen, saying "he did not mind being called a Rebel, but he would not abide the oath that accompanied the title." The future Chattanooga mayor was then arrested and taken before the provost marshal, his future fellow Cameron Hill resident Thomas J. Carlile. The clerk was H. Clay Evans, who would also build his home atop Cameron Hill. The case was dismissed.
Col. Fort at one time lived at 216 Prospect St., then he had the fine home built a little lower on Cameron Hill at the West Sixth location.
He was among those forming The Lookouts volunteer fire company and he was active in Yellow Fever relief. He was also a major donor to the fund for Yellow Fever victims. He served as city recorder and as city attorney. He was considered "the father of the Chattanooga Fire Department." Col. Tomlinson was mayor in 1876 when there was a grand festivity on the country's 100th birthday. He had been elected mayor on a campaign based on "the scrapping of the script mill." Immediately after he took office, he halted the issuance of script. With the city coffers running dry there was no money to buy coal at the city office so he held the sessions of the City Board in his office.
The "vigorous and picturesque character" was a frequent speaker at momentous occasions, including the dedication of the Fireman's Fountain and the celebration of the completion of the Chattanooga Southern Railroad. He was one of the incorporators of a Children's Hospital for Chattanooga. The children were especially fond of him. One little girl was giving an entertainment to her Sunday school classmates. She told her father, "Now, papa, I want you to invite just one gentleman, that's Col. Fort. The colonel accepted the invitation and enjoyed the evening with the little ones. In response, he organized a "donkey party" for about 100 little ones at Boyce (East Chattanooga). He had a supply of fine fish caught ahead of time in case they did not catch their own.
Each year on his mother's birthday, he would pay her a visit at the family home in Milledgeville. After she died, he would go each year and visit her grave.
Col. Fort died in Chattanooga in 1910 while working on an historical article about the Tennessee River. His body lay in state in the corridor of city hall. The merchants on Market Street closed their doors in tribute to him as the procession passed. Federal Court adjourned for the afternoon. Teamsters "stopt their wagons to pay a last tribute as the funeral passed, so widely was he known and loved by all sorts and conditions of men."
Two of his sisters remained in Chattanooga - Mrs. H.O. Milton and Mrs. Frances Fort Brown.
The house at 609 West Sixth St. remained vacant for many years, then it was acquired by James M. Adams, secretary of the Sewanee Fuel and Iron Company. He lived there many years.
When the wrecking crews arrived at Col. Fort's three-story brick beauty, it had been divided into four apartments.
No photo has yet been found of the Tomlinson Fort home on Cameron Hill.