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Robert Boal Fort

American politician (1867-1904)

Correspondence, annotated notebooks and portrait silhouettes prepared for research
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Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionJul 24, 2026
Entity authorityQ18705891
Source-derived summary

Robert Boal Fort (April 25, 1867 – May 21, 1904) was an American politician from Illinois. The son of Greenbury L. Fort, he was the third consecutive generation of his family to serve in the Illinois Senate for the district representing Marshall County, Illinois. Fort also served as a captain in the Spanish–American War and was the mayor of Lacon, Illinois.

Biography

Robert Boal Fort was born in Lacon, Illinois, on April 25, 1867. He was the only son of state senator Greenbury L. Fort, who would later serve eight years in the United States House of Representatives. His grandfather, Robert Boal, was also a state senator and was an associate of Abraham Lincoln. Fort attended public schools in Washington, D.C., then attended the Wyman Institute and Phillips Exeter Academy before studying abroad. Fort then returned to Illinois, assuming his father's farming and ranching interests.

Fort was interested in politics at a young age, and was named to the Marshall County Republican Party Committee as soon as he turned eighteen. Fort joined the Illinois National Guard, serving eight years.

Editorial summary

Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Robert Boal Fort” is american politician (1867-1904). The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Robert, Boal and Fort, not as a finished interpretation.

Editorial reviewA useful biographical orientation record, particularly for establishing names, roles and a first chronology. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1867, 1904—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1867-04-25. For this dossier, Robert, Boal and Fort is the immediate research focus.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The phrase “american politician (1867-1904)” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.

Evidence profile

Chronology provides the most reliable spine for this subject; interpretation should follow only after identities and dates are secure. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 24, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q18705891. None of the 1 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1867 and 1904.

Critical limits

Later biographies can compress uncertainty and repeat inherited reputations, so apparently settled claims may still require comparison. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.

Best used for
  • Establishing names and roles
  • Building a first chronology
  • Locating cited institutions
Verify next

Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Robert Boal Fort”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Robert Boal Fort primary sources, Robert Boal Fort archive and Robert research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Robert Boal Fort”?
  2. Which claims depend on a single source or contested interpretation?
  3. Which primary records establish identity, chronology and institutional ties?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from Robert Boal Fort” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.