Revs. F. C. Plaster, and W. S. Adams, who assisted
in Rev. Horace Carr’s ordination at Old Red
River Church, before the Civil War.
Mr. Fort sprang to his feet, and on the impulse of the moment said, “Tell one of the men up at the lot feeding, to get an axe and cut her fool head off, QUICK!” It was too good to keep, and his son treasured it as a household joke, which he enjoyed telling on his kind old father, along with many others equally as amusing.
But the happy old Riverside home was to undergo changes. After a few days illness, from the infirmities of old age, Mr. Fort quietly fell asleep, July 12, 1891. His remains were laid to rest with Masonic honors at the old Metcalfe burying ground on Elk Fork Creek, near Sadlersville, Tenn.
His family feasted on his affections, and his friends enjoyed the wealth of his noble nature.
Since the lives of most of the good people mentioned in this little story centered around Port Royal, I deem it not amiss to tell something of this historic spot.
Nearly four generations have passed since this village, which tradition tells us, lacked only one vote of being the Capitol of the State, was settled. In 1789, Samuel Wilcox, of Port Royal, South Carolina, came with his small family and settled near a large spring, on the left bank of Red River, at the foot of a ridge called “The Devil’s Backbone.” The exact location may be better known today by pointing the reader to a slight elevation on the far side of W. N. Gaines’ bottom field, lying between his “Hill Top” home and Sulphur Fork Creek, nearly opposite the old Weatherford mill site.
Located as he was, between Red River on the one side and Sulphur Fork Creek on the other, he soon realized his mistake, for during the high water season a vast area of this level tract, including his home, was subject to overflow.
So he crossed over Sulphur Fork Creek a few hundred yards northwest, to a picturesque point where the creek empties into Red River, and built a primitive residence, and a blacksmith shop, and called the place Port Royal, in honor of his native town in South Carolina. Mr. Wilcox later on entered about one thousand acres of land three or four miles from Port Royal, on the Graysville road leading to Kentucky. A portion of his original purchase is now owned by Mr. Polk Prince, of District No. 1, Montgomery county.