Richard Easton Fortson, one of our founding fathers, was born in Elbert County,
Georgia. He was the son of Thomas Fortson III and great-grandson of the Revolutionary
soldier, Lt. Thomas Fortson, Jr.
Richard married Lucy Jane Campbell of Elbert County when she was only fourteen years old
and he was just seventeen. They were to have fourteen children in their marriage. Lucy was
an expert horsewoman which proved to be a great advantage for both of them some twenty
years later.
When Richard was thirty-two years old, he and Lucy were charter members of Mill Shoal
Baptist Church. They moved to the Bond community and in 1869 he helped form Shiloh church
and years later he moved to Danielsville and was a founding father of Danielsville Baptist
Church. He and Lucy are buried beside the Danielsville Presbyterian Church.
Richard enlisted in the Confederate Army as a Pvt. on July 15, 1861. He was with the
Elbert County Fireside Guards, Co C 15th Ga. Regiment. You have to admire his courage and
his loyalty to the South, but his zeal did not compensate for the fact that he was a frail
man, 37 years old and the father of eleven children. He was discharged a year later on
August 9, 1862 with an unnamed disability. His wife, Lucy rode a horse to the hospital in
Richmond, Virginia to get her husband and brought him back home. Keep in mind that the
Civil War was raging and she was a woman riding horseback alone. She did not intend to
raise eleven children alone. Three more children were born to them by 1873.
Elmira, his first born, married William W. Beard, also a Civil War soldier. They are the
ancestors of Deacon George Collins. Their eighth child was Thomas Ed Fortson who married
Nancy Scarbrough. They are the ancestors of Deacon Dwight Fortson. Ben Ace Fortson was
their tenth child and he married Martha Sartain. He is the ancestor of Faye Adams Nash,
wife of Deacon Elis Nash.
The following members or children of members who attend church here are direct descendants
of Richard Fortson.
