Harrison County Iowa Genealogy

HISTORY OF HARRISON COUNTY, IOWA, 1891
BIOGRAPHIES
Page 314
WILLIAM N. FOUTS

William N. FOUTS, of Missouri Valley, left Indiana from Putnam County in 1850, and emigrated to Pottawattamie County, Iowa, and engaged at farming in Rockford Township until the spring of 1857, and then settled in St. John's Township, and continued to farm until about 1885.

In the James Buchanan presidential campaign he was one of the nine voters in Rockford Township, and the election returns show that Buchanan received five out of the nine votes cast. It is said that the Clerk of the Board, Joe DeFOREST, an ex-sailor, made a speech in which he said that Buchanan was elected, and regretted very much that they did not have communication with Washington by telegraph, because he knew Buchanan was elected, for as "Rockford Township went, so went the United States!"

Mr. FOUTS was born May 13, 1827, one half mile north of Manhattan, Putnam County, Ind., and is the son of Abner and Rosy (WOODRUM) FOUTS. The FOUTS were of German descent, while the WOODRUMS were of Irish extraction. The father, like most of his ancestors, followed agricultural pursuits. Of the three children born by this union, our subject is the only one living. His mother died in Indiana June 23, 1841, and in 1850 the father came to Pottawattamie County, Iowa. In 1842 the father married for his second wife Edicy TRESNER, a native of Putnam County, Ind., by which marriage union six sons and two daughters were born, of which numbers four sons and one daughter are living. The sons are all residents of Douglas County, Neb., while their sister lives in Texas. The father died in Harrison County, and was buried at Oak Grove Cemetery, St. John's Township, and his widow lives near Valparaiso, Neb.

In the autumn of 1864 our subject enlisted in Company C of the Thirteenth Iowa Infantry, and continued in the service of his country until August 12, 1865. He was in SHERMAN'S Seventeenth Army Corps, and participated in the battle between Thomas and Hood, and was at Nashville in the reserve and was not called out.

Politically, he has always voted the Democratic ticket, except in the Greeley campaign. He has held numerous local offices in St. John's Township; was Trustee twelve years, Assessor, member of the School Board, and School Treasurer. He was one of the charter members of the Grand Army Post at Missouri Valley, and belongs to Lodge No. 232 of A. F. & A. M.

Mr. FOUTS was united in marriage August 2, 1855, to Miss Elizabeth C. SMITH, of Pottawattamie County, Iowa, who was a native of Wayne County, Ohio. The family moved to Greene County, Ind., and followed farming until the autumn of 1854, and then came to Pottawattamie County. The father died in this county in the early '70s, and the mother survived until March, 1890. They were both buried in the Harris Grove Cemetery.

Mr. and Mrs. FOUTS are the parents of three sons and five daughters; Alma deceased at the age of twenty-one years and five months, and was buried in Oak Grove Cemetery; John W., who lives in Missouri Valley, and is a carpenter; William A. is in the Missouri Valley Carriage Factory; Rosa L., wife of Daniel GRIFFITH, a farmer for many years in Illinois, but now in the restaurant and candy trade; Ida J., wife of M. E. BRUNDIDGE, living in Missouri Valley; Hattie, living at home; Clara Eliza, at home, and Marvin Earl, at home.

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