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Individual Record for: Anderson Fouse (male)

Notes:

Anderson's name was probably originally known as Anderson "Foust" or more likely "Faust" per the Plantation of his birth in Alamance County, North Carolina. The change in family name (to Fouse) happened when after escaping salvery with his older brother Walter in 1863 and joining the Union Army, the soldiers misspelled his name on the enlistment papers (or rather spelled it phonetically).

The 1910 Census lists him as "Anderson Faust."

Eventually (possibly in order to collect any benefits from his military service), his name permenantly became Fouse. His brother Washington, who did not leave slavery until emancipated, and stayed in North Carolina, would eventually spell his name "Foust," closer to the original slave name, but with an "o" instead of an "a."

We are very sure of the composition of Anderson's family--as these are the aunts, uncles, mothers and fathers who begin the recorded Fouse lineage. They all sppear in the census records of the late 1800s and early 1900s.

Nancy Farley died sometime between 1900 and 1910. Like many women of time, the strains fo childbirth took their toll on her. She was in her early- to-mid forties when she died. Anderson was remarried in 1910 to a woman called Willis.

Eric Williams
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HISTORY OF THE FOUSE FAMILY as written by Eamestine Jenkins

Anderson Fouse (1847-1921) founded our branch of the Fouse family in Tennessee. We are probably the only Black family in the state with the surname Fouse. All members of our family trace their ancestry back to one Anderson Fouse. Anderson Fouse was born into slavery on one of the plantations owned by one of several German families named Faust in 1847, around a place called Grahams's Station in Alamance County near Greensboro, North Carolina. According to oral history his father's name may have been Jacob, or this may have been the name of an uncle or another brother. Anderson's father worked as a foreman, an important leadership position for enslaved men on southern plantations. He may have been part Cherokee, since he has been described as wearing his hair in two long braids. Jacob insisted that his family was about the third generation born into slavery on this particular plantation. Anderson may have had as many as seven brothers and five sisters. Almost nothing is known about Anderson's mother.

During the Civil War, when Anderson was just sixteen yeas old, he ran way nom the Faust plantation with one of his younger brothers named Walter Fouse who was only fourteen. The two brothers stayed together, following, like many escaped slaves (contraband), the Army of Occupation as the Union soldiers made their way throughout the south. They often hired escaped slaves to work for the Union Army building fortifications. and the brothers may have done this kind of work. They finally settled in Somerville, Tennessee in Fayette County.

Anderson Fouse matured into a responsible young man and a prominent leader in his community. He married a beautiful young woman named Nancy Farley who was born into slavery in Hardeman County about 1843. Farley is an Irish name. My grandfather, Garvin Fouse, remembered his mother as being taller than Anderson, and that she was very pretty with deep dimples. Nancy's mother was named Emily and she is listed on the 1900 census as the mother-law then living with Anderson and Nancy. According to oral history. Emily gave birth to thirteen daughters. Three of Nancy's sisters were named Mary, Vinnie, and Millie, and there was a brother named Will Farley. The Farleys married into families around Hardeman County named White, Rhodes, Crowder, Tatum, and Horton. This is how the Farleys and Fouses are related to Judge Odell Horton.

Like many other black youth after Emancipation, Nancy Farley was bonded out to work for a white family, and her bond was held by a white man named Cunningham. Anderson had to first save up enough money in order to buy out the remaining years on Nancy Farley's bond before they could marry, which is said to have been between $400.00-$800.00. Anderson and Nancy Farley Fouse married on September 30th 1877.

The names of the first generation of the Fouse family born in Tennessee were James, Walter, Dave, Viola, Bertha, Jennie, Langston, Garvin, Otto, and George Dewey. One can see that Anderson even gave some of his children, (Garvin and Otto), German derived names. Anderson Fouse was known in the Brownsville community as a prosperous farmer, and an independent and respected Black man: one of the first and few in the county to purchase land, which remains in the family today. He purchased the land in an area called the Possum Flat community in Haywood County. sometime in the 1880's from a white man named Willie Gaylor (his brother Walter Fouse had settled in Hardeman County). Anderson established a reputation as a gracious and honorable man always willing to lend friends and neighbors a helping hand. He was gregarious and liked to joke and have a good time. Walter Lee Fouse remembers that he was rather short but stocky with a big chest, muscular build, and copper colored in complexion with straight black hair.

The Fouse family farm was self-sustaining. They grew all of the family's food along with cotton, tobacco, and Anderson is said to have been among the first black farmers to experiment with growing wheat in Haywood County. Anderson also sold lumber off his land. He raised turkeys, geese, and reared and trained horses for racing, as well as hunting dogs. He usually kept five horses for his own stables. He grew large orchards with peach, apple, pear and plum trees, and gave his grandchildren and the local school children each a whole tree every summer for their own, but they were responsible for picking the fruit off those loaded down trees! There was also grist mill on his farm for grounding meal that served many members of the surrounding community.

Interestingly, Anderson managed for some years to maintain contact with relatives left back in North Carolina. A younger relative named Wilse Fouse lived with Anderson and Walter for a while in 1870, but he did not stay in Tennessee. In addition, Anderson often spoke of a brother named Duncan Fouse who had fought in the Spanish American War (1898- 1901) and still lived near Graham's Station. Duncan may also have worked as a Pullman Porter. Anderson also mentioned brothers named Thomas, Ed, and James Fouse. He told his children about a sister named Bertha, who helped to hide Anderson and Walter when they fIrst ran away from the Fouse plantation in North Carolina. He may have named one of his children in memory of this sister. Two of his sisters may have possibly been named Amanda and Druscilla. And one other sister Anderson described as stout and very pretty, was sold away from the family when she was about thirteen years old for $900.00. He never saw her again.

Anderson and Nancy had raised most of their ten children to adulthood before she died sometime between 1900 and 1910. Nancy was only in her early 40s, but possibly had too many children, a common experience of women in the 19th century: many often died in childbirth. Our ancestors were together at least twenty-three years and the children called their mother Nan. All of the Fouse family members are descendants of these ten children. The ten offspring of Anderson and Nancy Farley Fouse married families named Caldwell, Douglas, Holmes, Lee, and Manson.

This family history was initially compiled nom listening to the family stories and recording oral interviews with Garvin Fouse, Walter Lee Fouse, Jennie Bell Lee, and Lovelle Fouse Jenkins. Oral history has been verified with further historical research and documentation including government records like census records, marriage licenses, and death certifIcates whenever possible.

Eamestine Jenkins (descendant of Garvin Fouse Sr.)
Fouse Family ReunionlMemphis/2005

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