Fortson General Store

Fortson General Store. . An 1884 Georgia map shows this area was once called Blanchard's Crossing. It was a stop on a narrow-gauge railway that ran to Kingsboro,Georgia just beyond Cataula. When the Central of Georgia Railroad was builtin the 1880's, a station was constructed on the westside of Fortson Road with Thomas Willis Fortson named as station agent. Near the station was also general store run by the Fortson family,originally located across the road from the rail-road station. It was built of wood and burned in the early 1900's., Following the fire, a brick general store was constructed on the westside of Fortson Road and it also contained the Fortson,Georgia post office,Thomas Willis Fortson, son of Thomas Daniel Fortson, who built the Fortson House, served as postmaster, station agent, and ran the store. Later, these duties were assumed by his son Luther Getzen Fortson. The general store and the post office were a central part of the Fortson community. It was a meeting place for the locals to stop and tell stories., With the death of "Getzen" in 1963, the store was closed and the post office was moved several miles down Fortson Road to an area known as Nankipooh. The structure remained vacant for several decades.In 2015, a collaborative effort between the columbus Quarry, Historic Columbus, and Dr.and Mrs. Mark R. Fortson was established to clean the site of the general store,secure the remains of the building,and create an interpretive area to tell the story.