Foust/Faust Family Bible

Lafayette County, Mississippi

Containing Items Dated from 1832 to 1950.

Below is a verbatim transcription of the birth, marriage, and death entries in a large, leather-clad Bible with J. and L. C. Foust embossed on the front cover.  The original owners were John and Lucy C. Foust.  The Bible is now in very poor condition.  The binding has failed completely, and many of the deteriorating pages are loose.  The title page and several pages thereafter are missing.  Fortunately, the pages of family records, while loose, are still with the Bible, as are four pages from a previous family Bible.

The family data in the Bible is being transcribed here so that its contents can be preserved and made available for other researchers.  Spelling and punctuation have been reproduced exactly as recorded in the original.  Text entries between square brackets are annotations by Robert L. Caldwell, the current owner of the Bible, and are notes of clarification from his research on the Foust/Faust family.  He is a great-grandson of John and Lucy Foust and a grandson of Eddie M. Faust.

Births

John Foust son [of] Wm & Mrs. Evalina Foust was born Nov. 16^th, 1832

Lucy C. Foust daughter of E. J. & Mrs. Sarah Carter was born Feb. 5^th A.D. 1835

[E. J. Carter was Elias J. Carter who was a Methodist Episcopal minister in Lafayette County.  The Carter’s were from North Carolina, and the Foust family had migrated to Lafayette County from East Tennessee.  Lucy’s middle initial is ‘C’ where she is listed with her family in the census of 1850 when she was 15 years old.]

William E. Foust born August 22^nd 1855

Geo. O. Foust born March 25^th 1857

James W. Foust born Mar. 3^rd 1859

Sarah A. Foust born Jan. 25^th 1861

Mary E. Foust born Jan. 2^nd 1864

Anzo N. J. Foust born Dec. 26, 1866

Margaret L. E. Foust born July 28^th 1869

Eddie M. Foust born Jan 7^th, 1873

Dudley S. Foust born Feb. 24, 1875

Adrian B. Foust March 25^th 1878

[All the above fill a single page and are very uniform in penmanship and ink, indicating that they were entered by one individual at a single sitting.  William E. through Adrian B. are all the children of John and Lucy Foust.

James W. was James Wesley Foust.  Eddie M. was Eddie Manfred Foust.  Dudley S. was Dudley Sanford Foust.  Adrian B. was Adrian Brooks Foust.  The family gradually shifted its surname spelling from Foust to Faust, and by the mid-1900’s Faust was almost uniformly used.

Anzo N. J. Foust was a female.  The origin of this rather unusual name, which is clearly written in two places, is not known.  She had an uncle named Lorenzo Foust who died in the Civil War, so she may in some way have been named for him.  She went by the name Nettie, but the actual names for her initials N. J. are not known at this time (January 2003).]

Marriages

John Foust to Miss Lucy Carter Nov. 9^th, A.D. 1854

George O. Foust to Miss A. R. Frazier Dec 19^th A.D. 1877

[The next entry has been heavily erased and rewritten in pencil.]

J. A. Greer to Miss Mollie Faust Feb. 23, 1888

[The next entry is also in pencil, and then the good, ink penmanship resumes.]

E. L. Hodge to Miss Emma Foust Dec. the 25^th 1890

John Foust to S. A. McLarty. Feb 19^th 1891

E. M. Foust to Miss Daisy Ales Dec 19^th 1900

D. S. Foust to M. L. Ales Oct 14, 1909.

[In the above marriages, A. R. Frazier was Anice R. Frazier.  J. A. Greer was Joseph A. Greer.  Daisy Ales was Daisy Dean Ales, the daughter of Charles Robert Ales.  M. L. Ales was Mattie L. Ales, nee Wells, the widow of Robert W. Ales who was a brother of Daisy Dean Ales.  The Ales sometimes spelled their name Ayles.

John Foust was the husband of Lucy C. Foust who died in 1888.  Sarah A. McLarty was his second wife.

E. L. Hodge was Ellis L. Hodge, and Emma Foust was the Margaret E. Foust in the birth records.]

Deaths

Wm. E. Foust Aug. 23^rd, 1859

Sarah A. Foust.  Nov. 22^nd, 1865.

James W. Foust.  Sept. 10^th, 1872

Lucy C. Foust.  August 19^th, 1888

John Foust  May 29, 1901.

Mollie Greer  Sept 6, 1904.

Brooks Foust  Sept 10, 1904.

Nettie Foust Greer  [‘Aug’ was lined out] July ___ 1907

Eddie Foust  Nov. 12, 1931

Emma Foust Hodge  Nov ___ 1936

George O. Foust  Aug ___ 1919   [His tombstone says only 1857-1920.]

Dudley S. Faust  Feb   1950    [His tombstone says January 4, 1950.]

[The first four death entries above are in the same hand, then the next three in another, and the last five by yet another writer.  The last writer may have been working from memory, which could account for the blanks and the disagreements with tombstones.

Mollie Greer was Mary E. Foust, and the first wife of Joseph A. Greer.  After her death, Joseph A. Greer married her sister, Anzo N. L. Foust who went by the nickname Nettie.  The death date on Nettie’s tombstone at Midway Cemetery says July 8, 1907.]

From a Former Family Bible

[Also in the Bible are four small pages from another Bible.  These pages are in very poor shape, and are, for the most part, another (original?) version of the pages above.]

Births

John Foust Born Nov. 16^th 1832

Lucy C. Foust Born Feb. 5^th, 1835

William E. Foust Born Aug. 22 1855  Baptize 1856

Geo. O. Foust Born Mar. 25^th 1857  Baptise 1857

James W. Foust Born Mar. 3^rd, 1859  Baptise 1859

Sarah A. Foust Born Jan 25^th 1861  Baptise 1865

Mary E. Foust Born Jan 2^nd 1864  Baptise 1865

Anzo N. J. Foust Born Dec 26^th 1866  Baptise 1867

Margaret L. E. Foust Born July 28^th 1869  Baptise 1870

Eda Manford Foust was born Jan 7^th 1873  Baptise 1873

Dudley Sanford Foust was born Feb 24^th 1875  Baptise 1875

Adrian Brooks Foust Born Mar 25^th 1878  Baptise 1879

Marriages

Mr. John Foust to Miss Lucy C. Carter Nov 9^th 1854

George O. Foust to Miss A. R. Frazier Dec 19 1877

Deaths

William E. Foust Died Aug 23^rd 1859

James W. Foust Died Sep. 10^th 1872

Sarah A. Foust Died Nov 22^nd 1865

[All the entries on these four small pages may have been entered by the same person.  Since the last entry was in 1879, it is quite possible that this was the original family Bible which was then replaced by the larger, more elaborate one.  The ink is faded and brown (sepia) with age, and in some places it has bled into the paper, resulting in somewhat fuzzy letters.  Maybe the writer should have used a blotter and did not.

Note the variant spelling of Eddie M. Foust’s name.  There is still uncertainty about the spelling of his middle name.  It should probably be ‘Manfred’.  His death certificate has “Eddie M. Foust” or possibly “Faust”, dodging the middle name problem and confusing the surname spelling transition.]

For further discussion on the Foust family Bible or on the Foust/Faust, Ayles, Carter, Cumbie, or Waller families, please contact Bob Caldwell.

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Copyright 2006 - 2020 Bob Caldwell, submitter.

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