Person:Peter Foust (1)

Peter Foust was the youngest of George and Catherine Foust's seven children. He was born and grew up in Rush County, Indiana, which is between Indianapolis and Cincinnati. Little is known of him except that he married Caroline Brandenburg in 1866. Fragmentary evidence suggests she was from Henry County, which is adjacent to Rush County. After marriage, they settled in Hamilton County, about 30 miles north of Indianapolis, where they spent the rest of their lives. Peter and Caroline were the parents of four sons and three daughters. All engaged in farming except one Carrie, who was married to a dentist. She and her husband were childless, but nieces and nephews were always welcomed to a sumptuous meal at jolly Aunty Carrie's house after a bout with the foot-propelled dental drill in her husband's office.

    During the span of his lifetime from 1844 to 1921, Peter Foust witnessed enormous changes as the United States evolved from an agrarian society to an industrial one. Great factories were built and urban population grew as people from the farms and new immigrants moved into the cities to work in them. A network of gravel roads was constructed and a transcontinental railroad built, telegraph and then the telephone came into being; and a physician created Coco Cola, which was advertised as an "Esteemed Brain Tonic and Intellectual Beverage."
    Many improvements also were being made in farm equipment. New steel plows did a superior job of turning the soil and the development of disc harrows enabled better preparation of seed beds for planting. But the most significant to Peter and his fellow farmers was the invention of the reaper, which was just gaining widespread use of he was coming of age. This horse-drawn implement could cut a wide swath of wheat, rye or other small grains and bind them into bundles for stacking into shocks until they could be threshed -- replacing the laborious process of cutting with a cradle scythe and binding by hand. Later, threshers powered by steam engines would replace the flail for separating a grain from the husks, and harvesting became easier still.
    Of equal importance, transport by road, rail and water opened up ever more distant markets for their farm products and, in turn, brought the goods of the factories to those living in the country. All of this enabled infinitely improved living conditions. The fireplace as the principal utilitarian feature of the house was replaced by wood-burning iron ranges for cooking and iron pot-bellied stoves for heating. And with the growth of petroleum production in the latter 1800's, lighting was supplied by kerosene lamps instead of candles, the fireplace, lard lamps and other primitive lighting devices. The wide availability of cloth in the stores and invention of the Singer sewing machine was a boon to the housewife, who could now dispose of her spinning wheel and loom. Both Peter and Caroline led a full life and died at 77 years of age.

From A Family History by Don Foust, 1997.

PETER C. FOUST DEAD- Well Known Farmer of Aroma Neighborhood Answers Call Monday.

Peter C. Foust, 76, a well known farmer of the Aroma neighborhood, died at his home Friday morning about 2:30 o'clock after an illness of several months. He had been a resident of that locality for a number of years and was a man highly esteemed in that community. He is survived by the widow and six children: Ira; Jack; George Foust; Mrs. Albert Morris residing near Aroma; Mrs. Dayton Harvey of Elwood and Mrs. Bert Bryan of Arcadia. The funeral services will be conducted at the church at Aroma Wednesday afternoon and the burial will follow in the cemetery at that place. Elwood Call Leader, Tuesday 28 June 1921

1. ↑ A. Donovan Faust (Foust). A Family History: The Ancestors of Thomas Wilson Faust. (1997).